Path Of Valor
by Spector29
Summary: Take a pound of Self-Insert. Slice in two, sear in Hammy oil and season gently with Crack. Add a side of Genderbending and other desired ingredients, and in a few chapters you'll have a delicious Path of Valor.
1. Chapter 1

**Path of Valor**

**AN: So, I was reading a particular self-insert Fire Emblem fanfic and I thought to myself, 'Wait, I could totally do this. All I need to do is change my last name, and we're in biznez.'**

**If you thought you read this before, read again. I changed some stuff.**

**So I did. Enjoy!**

'_Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring, Banana Phone!' _Chimed my cellphone. The ring tone already told me who it was, my good friend Daniel. I clicked the green button, and another one to put it on speaker.

"Oi, you coming yet Larson?" Daniel's deep voice comes out of the piece of plastic with only the slight hint he's moving.

"No, I'm not. You told me seven thirty." I reply annoyed. We were headed up to play laser tag with some friends in the city, and _apparently _I was late.

"So, you ever plan on coming? Or are we gonna walk there?"

"You're a track star, I'm sure you could handle it." I snark back.

'Well, I'd rather roll up in a bomb-ass caddy, if you get what I'm saying."

"It's a Bonneville, bro." I reminded him.

"And there is a house in New Orleans too, you wanna know what it's called?"

I sigh. "Could it be called The Rising Sun?"

"Good guess. Have you left yet?" "Yeah, Yeah..."

It didn't take long before I got to his house, and soon we were on the road again, singing Lonely Island songs. Daniel was sitting beside me, wearing a white tank-top and black sweatpants, for ease of movement. I was wearing something between a sweatshirt and a polo, and a dark pair of jeans. After a rousing rendition of Boombox, Daniel turns down the radio.

"Hey, you know Amelia from Sacred Stones, right?" Oh right, I sold my copy of Sacred Stones to him. He liked that game more than I did, anyway.

"Yeah, why?" She was a trainee, was he going to complain how she sucks or...?

"Dude, she has like, fifteen in every stat except Speed and Skill. She's kicking everybody's ass." We both laugh at that.

"How many times did you go though the Tower of Valani to get her there?" I smirk. I never liked that, it was effectively infinite experience points to anybody with a little patience.

"Oh you know, _hmmermerm_..." Daniel trailed off. "So, how's your Ike Solo doing?"

Oh yeah, I was doing an Ike solo on Hard, almost forgot. "Well, I got four maxed steel forged swords, so I think I got it locked up." I say with a grin. Daniel laughs back.

I don't think ether of us will forget what happened next. Time slowed to a crawl as the pickup in the other lane swerved to avoid some animal, putting him right in front of us. We finished the final chord of the song around the time of impact. Last thing I remember was the smell of burning gas.

And the blackness, that too. To be quite honest, my first thought was how many balls was I tripping and when did I get that way? Too bad some guy's voice broke me out of my haze.

_**Hmhmhm, seems like you're in a predicament.**_

I still felt rather high, so I decided to turn on the sarcasm generators. _Oh you know, death is a slap on the wrist nowadays anyway. _I tried to say, but apparently I didn't have a mouth. Yep, I must be so high.

_**You seem awfully cavalier of the fact you were just deep-fried.**_

Didn't even bother trying to open my mouth. _Well, I guess I was wrong about there not being an afterlife. Is this my reincarnation, or is Hell just really dark?_

_**Ha! Yes, you could say this was your reincarnation. I prefer to think of it as a second chance.**_

_'Zat right?_

_**It is. If you die again, well, I'll have run out of places I could send you.**_

_Oh? And where are you sending me?_

_**Oh you know. Inside a videogame. Bye Bye now.**_

Wait, wha-

And then it got really bright. Not white light, more like a really bright but dirty orange. Then it was like someone yanked back on the field of view lever, and I was quickly able to see the forest around me. Good thing I was sitting down, I'd have surely fallen over. Or maybe I did, judging by the distressed look on the woman's face in front of me.

She whispered something to me, I think it was something along the lines of, "Who are you?". I couldn't really hear, my ears were ringing and I had a killer headache. When the ringing stopped, I noticed she was still looking at me suspiciously. Of course, I probably had a stupid look on my face, because I knew who was in front of me. Sure, I had only seen that green hair and orange through the eyes of a graphics rendering program, but this was unmistakeably Queen Elincia of Crimea. In my stupor, I noticed a ruffling of leaves behind the Queen and to my right.

I was a little focused on the Queen to notice any possible nearby danger. Damn, there aren't any graphics in the world that can do the Queen justice. Even on the run, she still looked like the picture of a fragile aristocrat on the outside, but her eyes betrayed her inner fire. Somewhere in the back of my mind I noted she was hiding a sword strapped to her leg, but then less I though of Elincia's legs the better.

Naturally, after my inner purple-prose, I looked behind the Queen, and saw several soldiers in red getting slaughtered in a variety of painful, but mildly humorous, ways by a company of mismatched men and women. A redhead on a horse with shining armor, another in the back of the group with a bow, but most strikingly was the man with blue hair currently flipping around in the air. Again, it didn't take a rocket-physician to know that was Ike.

So, Ike and Elincia are here, with what I'm assuming to be the rest of the Greil mercenaries. Daein soldiers are getting their asses handed to them, but as far as I can see Mist isn't with them.

So, ether one of two things happened: I've gone insane, or I'm inside Path of Radiance. Or both. Probably both.

Elincia, growing somewhat impatient for her, was about to ask me again before another rustling to my right startled the both of us. As I rose up slowly, I put my index finger to my lips and made a 'Shh' sound at Elincia. She didn't seem to understand, but she kept quiet anyway, so what the hoo-hah. No reason to get a javelin sent our way for making too much noise.

I checked the bush beside me and almost fell back again when I saw Daniel sprawled out on the ground. He groaned and sat up, probably just as disoriented as I was. I walked over and crouched down by him.

"Dude, don't gasp, but we're in Chapter three of Path of Radiance." I explain quietly. Dan, to his credit, didn't seem fazed at all. He pointed at the increasingly confused girl and said, "But that's Elincia, you don't see her in Chapter three." I grew annoyed.

"Dan, I just told you we're inside a videogame, and the part you're focusing on is the exact time?" I whisper just so he could hear, exasperated. Daniel gets up and stretches his limbs.

"Well, you appear to be right, so what else would I say?"

"Point taken." I bite off the words. Apparently I came across as mighty hostile, because the Queen backed away at that. No wait, if we're in Radiance, she isn't a Queen yet. As I muse about about my circumstances some more, I am rudely interrupted by a voice calling out, "Hey, there's some people over there!"

The three of us freeze. All the Daein soldiers appear to be dead, so it has to have came from one of the Greil Mercenaries. Quickly, a cover story began to form in my mind. Ah man, this won't be good.

Eventually, we were brought out into the clearing. Ike was standing before us, with Titania and Soren behind him. Odd, Soren was looking a lot more...feminine then I remember him being in the game.

"Who are you?" Ike's usual tactlessness is spot on, I see. Somehow, he sounded exactly like I thought he would. Because of the beginning cutscene in the game, but I digress.

"I am Elincia, Princess and heir to the throne of Crimea." She said, with a noticeable amount of hopefulness.

Ike and Soren had somewhat disbelieving looks on their faces while Titania merely had a look of simple shock. Soren suspiciously inquired, "How's that possible? There was no news of your birth at all."

Good god, Soren's voice was high. It's almost like...

Me and Dan looked at each other at the exact same moment, the same thought going through our minds.

Elincia sighed and said, "My father kept my existence a secret from the kingdom."

Ike nodded and said, "That would explain why those Daein soldiers were chasing after you."

Titania looked at Daniel and I with a sharp look in her eyes. I could tell she was trying to figure something out. I didn't like the look of where this was going. After a minute, Titania stopped and asked me in a tone that was a little more polite than Ike's, "Who are you two?"

I make a quick, unnoticed hand gesture to Daniel, signaling 'I got this shiz, bro.'

I take a breath. God, I hope this works. "Well, my name is Adam and this is my friend, Daniel. I'm searching Tellius for someone to instruct me in Elder Magic." I lie though my teeth. Daniel gives a small grin. "My friend here is serving as my bodyguard. He's quite skilled with axes. However, it seems they weren't quite up to snuff." I send a fake glare met with real confusion, further selling the story.

"What do you mean, Elder Magic?" Titania questioned carefully. Soren jumped in before I could say anything.

"He means Dark Magic. This man here is a wannabe shaman." Soren said, with a touch of hostility.

As they reached for their weapons, I stammered out a response, "H-Hey now, it's not the magic that is evil, it's often the wielder. I intend to not go crazy, thank you very much." While Soren seemed unconvinced, that settled down everybody immensely. Elincia helped by adding, "It's true, they had numerous times to harm me if they wished, but they didn't. Please, my lord..." She trailed off, embarrassed.

"Oh. My name is Ike, the redhead to my left is Titania, and the mage is Soren. Titania is our leader right now, and she," he points to Soren, "..Is our tactician."

What.

Daniel and I are frozen in shock. A girl? Soren's a girl? I mean, yeah he looks like a girl in game but...

Titania turns her questioning back to us. "So, you were saying about your friend's skills...?"

I grin, recomposing myself. "Right, well, apparently Daniel skipped the day they went over 'What to do when surprised.' in axeman academy." I was having a bit too much fun poking at Dan's ego it seemed, "Right, well if you actually got a spell off I might have had an easier time." Now it was mine turn to be flustered. "Not fair! You know I'm damn fast for a shaman."

Ike was rubbing his temples, before finally having enough of us and shouting, "ALRIGHT, I got it."

Me and Dan jumped a little, intimidated. Carefully, I continued, "A-Anyway, we'd like to see your commander." I said. This was the most dangerous part.

Ike raised an eyebrow. "Why is it you want to see my father?"

Boldly forward I went, "I have a...personal message for him." "You could also say we're fans of a sort." Dan added.

Ike nodded. "Alright. First, show me what you can do. Boyd!"

Boyd walked over, thankfully still a man. It seems only Soren was genderbent...

Boyd grins at Daniel. He throws a hatchet-looking ax at his feet. "Show me what you can do with a throwing ax."

Nodding, Daniel picked up the ax, looked over it for a a moment, and threw it at a tree many yards away like you'd throw a discus. Both of us seemed surprised when it embedded itself cleanly in the tree.

Boyd shrugged. "Nice throw, but very sloppy. Not surprised you went down against trained soldiers."

Soren stared holes in my head. 'Well? Have any Dark spells to show us?" I smiled nervously. No, No I didn't.

"Of course. I'll ah...I'll need a target though." I stammer out.

"I'd be happy to volunteer." A man in priest robes walked forward. Soren was still glaring at me. "Are you sure Rhys? He could try and use lethal force."

I gasp, mock offended. "Soren, I'm in shock you would be suspicious over someone like me!" Daniel and Boyd snort in contained laughter, while her eyes narrowed.

Uncomfortable, Rhys put up a circular shield of light magic. I, pulling on my memory of Fire Emblem magic, copy a shaman's hands and say the first words that come to my mind.

_Requescia Timpachi Tenebrae, _I intone. A sphere of darkness begins to form above my head. I'm freaking out inside, but I have to continue. My hands were raised to keep the ball over me, now I wind back and point at Rhys, Phoenix Wright Objection-style and yell, "Flux!"

The ball drips into the ground, and a vortex of blackness springs from the ground around Rhys, trapping and crushing him. He groans in pain, but manages to keep his shield up. I release the spell.

"Are you alright?" Titania, who has so far been passively watching, asks with much concern.

Rhys gives a weak smile. "I'm alright, nothing a quick nap can't handle. I'd be a lot worse for wear without that shield though."

With that settled, and Soren grumbling a, "I suppose they're legitimate." we begin our journey.

Hopefully, we can figure out why we're here.


	2. Chapter 2

**Path of Valor 2**

**A/N: You know what gets me in a writing mood? Repo! The Genetic opera and the Persona 4 Endurance Run. I don't know why. Anyway, a couple people said I has a problem keeping my tenses straight last chapter. Count and see how many times I screw up present-tense, collect and share for great prizes!***

–

I always knew those tomes were bullshit. Sure, I'd need to pick up some tomes if I wanted to learn legitimate spells like Wyrm and Luna, but that doesn't mean I can't turn Flux into five different things. So you know what? I will. Besides, I'm excited for my future, maybe I get to be a summoner. Although that wouldn't dissuade people from thinking I'm a possessed abomination.

I'm not excited for my immediate future though ether. The next few days will be, to steal the sayings of a certain someone, a _biiiiittttccchhhhhhhh._

"How long till we're there?" Daniel inquires. We're near the end of the pack, far enough away to whisper, but close enough not to arouse suspicion in anyone except Soren. But at this rate, screw her, if she remembers this after tonight I'll be incredibly surprised. In my inner monologue, I missed what the answer to Daniel's question was.

I lean and whisper to Daniel, asking how long it would be. He whispers back with this smug grin, "A few hours. Too busy staring Elincia to hear? Or are you marveling Soren's new hotness?".

What does he mean? Elincia wasn't exactly a sight to behold if I didn't also want an eyeful of Titania's horse's ass. And yeah, Soren always looked like a girl, but now that she apparently _is_ a girl, she's actually quite pretty. Shame she's such an ice princess though. All in all, hardly anything to get distracted about. One look at his smug face, and I realize he was trying to get me agitated.

"Goddammit Leroy." I whisper to him. He actually laughed out loud at that, earning several confused, and one icy stare. "What about you? I'm sure you're terribly depressed that there will be about as many women as men in this group in a few days."

Daniel is still grinning. "Terribly so. But even then, this is just a videogame bro, you want to fall in love with a computer or something?" The way he phrased that bugged me, so I looked for a fallen tree branch on the road.

Once I spotted one, I picked it up and smacked Daniel with it. Laughing with him, I say, "That seem like a game to you broski?" We both broke down laughing after that, taking a knee and struggling to breath. We probably looked like we were crazy.

He brings up an interesting point, though. Where are we, exactly? It certainly felt real enough. That dude that sent me here could've just been fucking with me when he said I was going into a videogame, maybe that's just how he thought we would understand it best. Asshole.

I talk normally, to stop any more inquisitive stares. "Why you gotta call this a _dream, _man? This is really happening. The Greil mercenaries are _really _escorting us." I tried to get Dan to speak in code with me, by the way I said dream.

He caught on. "Well, assuming that this is a _dream_, what happens once we're done here? Once we've completed the _dream, _What happens? I don't want to just fade away after everything dies down. You get what I'm saying?" Daniel really seems worried the whole world will just end after Radiant Dawn. Which, admittedly, is rather scary.

Apparently, our audience thought it would be a fine time to inject their two cents. "Who says you'll fade away?" Titania couldn't stop herself from interjecting, I see.

"Well, if this is a war, and we all make it out, there will always be work." Soren deadpans. Somehow it loses it's effect when it's a hot chick being the Kyon expy.

Although I fit that bill better myself, I suppose.

"Plus, if we all make it to Gallia, we'll have quite a few brownie points with the future Queen, eh?" I joked. I turned my head to joke with Dan some more, but his glare made me realize what I just said.

"What are you talking about? We're not going anywhere near that filthy place." Shinon mutters darkly.

Soren stops, turning to me. She's got that look in her eyes, like someone is about to come up behind me and beat me with a frying pan. "Tell me _stranger,"_ She begun, "Why would we need to flee to Gallia? And why would the _princess_ need us to escort her there?"

She wasn't interrogating me subtly, as the entire company stopped to hear our exchange with great interest. Time to bullshit my way out, "W-Well," I stammer. "Daein isn't just going to let it's prize go right? And the Laguz nations never gave a fuck about beorc wars before, right?" That had a surprising amount of sense to it, especially since that's where we are going after tonight.

I was about to say something else when Titania stopped us both. "Alright, that's enough. Soren, I'll take our guests to the commander, and see what he thinks. He'll decide what to do with these two, so calm yourself."

Soren was not happy. She seriously looked like she would take an icepick and stab Dan and I to death. You could say she looks cute when she gets mad, but good lord, if I said that out loud she would castrate me. So I'll just pretend not to think about anything and keep walking like a lemming.

A few tense hours later, we arrived back at the compound, tired as hell. Well, I am at least. Titania practically has to carry me to get me to move anywhere, and Dan is just walking like he took a light stroll though the meadow. Fucking fit people, making me look like an ass.

I drag my feet along to the main building, thinking of a colorful variety of swears I can yell ito the sky when I get the chance. Unless I die soon, but whatever. Death smesh, I'm fucking tired.

My barely coherent rambling aside, we were just told to wait here for the commander. I look around, and I've come to a conclusion. I have no idea where I am. Up high on the wall, there's an opening that light is coming through. I have no idea if there is glass over it, as this room is rather warm as it is.

I'm right about to go to sleep when some dude walks in. Well, not so much some dude as fucking Greil...Greil...you know, what was Ike's last name? I don't think it ever came up. Before he lets me come to the revelation that I have practically no knowledge of anybodies' last names, he begins interrogating us.

"Mage, do you find it boring here or something?" Greil snaps at me.

I sit up right away with a hasty, "No sir!"

"Well then, why don't you tell me why you needed to see me." Greil walks over to a desk, right below the window-hole area.

"Well," I begin, looking to Daniel. He's got the look on his face that says, _Go for it bro. _"...Funny story about that. We can't exactly tell you why until you understand some things first." I reach into my pocket, thanking all kinds of gods I brought my cellphone with me.

I hold out the small screen to him. "This here, is a piece of technology from where we come from. It can do things like this..." I swiped over the lock and pulled up Angry Birds. "...It can play these. They're called videogames."

Greil raises his eyebrow and asks, "Ok, although I don't know how that pertains..."

I interrupted him. I'm on a roll when I say, "Well, you see, there are other screens that can play a whole bunch of videogames. A game both me and my friend here like to play..." I look him in the eyes when I say, "...Is Fire Emblem."

Greil's face was impassive, but his eyes betrayed his recognition of the name.

Dan chose this time to chime in, "Now for some reason, and we don't know why, we're ether inside the game or in a place that really looks and seems like it."

Keep on rolling. "Which, considering our familiarity with this world, you could say we have a limited ability to predict the future." I grin at Greil.

Greil keeps on his stoney exterior while contemplating what we've told him. "So what you're saying is, you know exactly what will happen to us because people from your world play with our lives for entertainment?" Greil wasn't exactly ecstatic at the thought, understandably.

This wasn't how I was planning it to go, though. "Er...Well...More or less, yeah." I stammer out.

Dan's keeping cool though. "Would you like proof?" He offered.

Greil turns and glares at him. "Yes, I would like that very much."

Me and Dan grin at each other. We have the advantage now. "What would you like to know?" I ask with renewed jackassery.

Greil turns on me again, not amused. "Who will be on a mission in three days time?"

Dan's quick on the draw, getting an answer out before me. "Trick question, we'll all be escorting the Princess to Gallia after tonight."

Greil returned to his stone-like expression. "What happens tonight?"

I buzz in first, "Daein attacks our camp by surprise to try and recapture Princess Elincia."

Greil continues, "What happens to us on the way to Gallia?"

Me and Dan stop. Uh-oh. "We were...kinda hoping you wouldn't ask that." I say tentatively.

It proved to be a long questioning session, indeed.

After extensive questioning, Greil believed us. He also agreed to make us a part of the Greil Mercenaries and not attempt to change the future too much. Not that we wouldn't use our collective advantages in little ways, though.

While the rest of the camp was participating in an evacuation 'drill', we were getting our things 'unpacked'. After all, we needed to keep the appearance that we didn't know we were leaving soon anyway.

As I arrange all 'none' of my tomes on my bed, I see one land in front of me. I look up to an entirely expected sight, Soren looking like she wants to saw my neck off with a rusty spoon.

I put on my best Troll smile and say, "You know, you can't be an ice queen forever. Sooner or later one of these menfolk will get you defrosted."

Soren glares at me with hate I've seen reserved for puppy-kickers and 4chan. "The funny thing about this compound is how easy it is to make sure _no one will hear you scream._" she threatens.

I laugh loudly at that, "Wait, you have experience doing this? I didn't know you were a screamer in the sack, Soren!" I try not to imagine thousands of Fire Emblem fans trying to disembowel me for pulling this kind of shit, but I find it hilarious, especially since she's blushing now.

Soren's cheeks are only lightly red by the time she can stammer out, "W-What? That's not, I mean-" I am keeled over laughing at this point, not in a small part because of the absurdity of it all.

You know, the thing about Mages is, they're surprising agile. You'd think you could tell that by looking at them, since they aren't exactly the biggest guys on the battlefield and all. Why I'm surprised when Soren dashes over and pins me to the bed by my lapels, crushing me with her knees on my chest, I'll never know.

Nor will I ever really find the reason why I bent forward to give her a peck on the cheek before summoning a bit of eldrich magic to power her off me. She regains her footing, still a bit stunned, while all I'm thinking is, _Awww Yeeaaahhhh._

Right before she slams my door in a huff, I call out to her, "Thanks for the tome, Soren!"

Maybe I'll get to study it before the battle tonight.

***limit one per reviewer**


	3. Chapter 3

Path of Valor 3

**A/N: Right then, screw present-tense. But not really. But Seriously.**

Well, there's good news and bad news. The good news is, the game had to simplify how magic worked in order to have mages actually be useable. What does that mean? It means magic is complex and thus exponentially more badass. The bad news is...

I'm possessed. Not literally, or at least I don't think I am. The book Soren gave me was a general practitioner's guide to Dark magic, and it had some interesting things inside of it. Turns out she was right to be a little on edge with me. It says in the opening sections that in order for a person to be able to use Dark magic, he or she must ether bear a Spirit's Mark like the one everyone thinks Soren has, or invite darkness into his heart to give him a certain aptitude.

Which is great for me, but the book warns that this rarely has no effect on a person's personality. I'm probably exempt though, being a dimensional slider and all. At any rate, it gave me some really cool information about my new Mage class.

There are three primary trees of Dark magic: Druidic, Eldric, and Necromancy. Naturally, I jumped right to Necromancy. It talks about the specifics, like 'How to create a body for the Dead to inhabit,' 'How to make the Dead obey you' and 'Why the hell are you disturbing the souls of the Dead in the first place, anyway?'.

That was, in fact, tit-swimmingly cool. But it also was _not _something you fucked around with, or did halfway. Make a body but don't grab a soul? The next dead guy gets your newly-created real estate, and is now coming for your ass, ungodly pissed off. Grab a soul but don't prepare a body right, or at all? The soul has to go somewhere, and if you're lucky it'll be you.

Then you needed to learn how to make the body combat effective, and it was just a fucking headache and not very effective for the upcoming battle. So, skimming though the sections about the other schools of Dark magic, I learned an unintentionally meta-hilarious thing. Dark magic has a section comprised entirely of, what are referred to as in RPG circles as, Buffs and Debuffs.

Dark magic. The evil, unholy abomination of death, has a section of magic focused on _helping people._

That's funny as hell.

This school is, as you may have guessed, Druidic magic. And as hilarious as this entire system is, screw not 'bringing harm to the goddess's creations,' I want to learn how to make people's heads implode.

So I did.

As it turns out, tomes like Flux, Wyrm, Luna, and Mudo aren't actually spells by themselves, but effects. Casting Flux crushes things in blobs of magic, while Wyrm is like a bullet in that, to quote a certain African-american actor, "...ain't no motherfucker gonna be stopping it once it gets a-rolling.". These make logical sense too, Wyrm would be harder to cast because you both have to craft the projectile and put a massive amount of force behind it.

Flux however, worked somewhat autonomously. You cast a big enough blob to envelop what it is you want to crush the shit out of, and it contracts by itself. Which gives me some wicked painful ideas to test out in the upcoming battle.

Speaking of that, it's getting dark out. The princess retired to her room after coming to the compound, so if Daein aren't slowpokes they should be arriving any minute. Greil conveniently scheduled his evacuation 'drill' right before nightfall, which is when Daniel and I said the soldiers would arrive. As if I had been broadcasting my thoughts, Daniel knocks on my door and opens in a crack, "Yo bro, it's time to talk to Elincia. Mess hall."

With that, he left. Tossing my new book on top of my bed and grabbing my emergency daggers off the one end table in the room, I set out to discover where the hell the Mess hall was. After walking in a circle about a million times, Mist finally took pity and came to find me. What she found was a sixteen year old male pacing, quietly swearing to himself.

She eventually lead me outside, presumably to where this 'Mess hall' was. I was starting to doubt it existed when a goddamn flaming arrow whizzed by my head. I gotta say, I took it well.

Mist didn't.

She screamed so loud it made me wonder if the Daein's cannon fodder soldier's helmets rang out. Of course, this drew the attention of the Greil mercenaries, the Daein army, and probably half of fucking Tellius. It was about the time everybody came out when a dude in big black armor strode out to meet us. He was about to open his mouth when I heard a familiar voice cut him off. "Let me guess, You're some Daein army _nobody, _and you've come here for our guest, right?"

Oh my god Soren, I think I'm in love. Oh wait, then Ike's my romantic competition. MOTHERFU-

"Wha-What? HOW DARE YOU ADRESS A RANKING OFFICER IN THE DAEIN ROYAL-"

"No wait, let me guess; The Daein royal prison bitch force?" Daniel inquired, earning a laugh from some of the menfolk.

"YOU! I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW-"

"That you're an idiot for walking right into a hostile base camp, who's enemy combatants you know nothing off?" Soren piped in again.

Oh yeah, I wanted to test that theory out tonight.

"HA! AS IF I WOULD COME IN ALONE-"

"Parking your friends on our doorstep then inviting yourself in for a chat seems pretty alone to me." Ike deadpans.

At this point, the guy is fuming mad. "I AM A SUPERIOR ARRRGGGHHAAA!" He screams out as my test displays it's results.

So, Dark magic would involve darkness, right? Well, aren't shadows the physical manifestation of darkness? That's how I rationalized it, anyway. So what I tried to do is launch a dark spell from shadows not directly by me. It was a lot smaller than I shaped it, and it went in an entirely different direction then where I aimed it, but it worked.

It wrapped around his feet and forcibly fused him to the ground, also making sure he was never going to be able to walk again.

Which did great in the strategic short-term, what with us now having a hostage and all.

While ally and enemy alike were thoroughly confused, I stepped up and cast a almost-complete Flux around the commander's head, just transparent enough to see his terrified face. With as much courage as I could muster, I called out to the rapidly un-camouflaging army.

"Your Commander is now our hostage! You have two choices, lay down your weapons peacefully or watch your commander be ground into a fine paste! And be quick, lest you want to see him suffocate!" I was bullshitting that last part, but no one needed to know that.

It seems they made their decision quickly. One of the nameless mooks called out, "What are your terms?"

A devious plan came into my mind. I turned my head to Daniel, and motioned for him to come up. "Send your Lieutenant up here to discuss!" Soren was about to object when I turned and Shussh-ed her. She huffed, but didn't say anything more. Greil and Titania, the two people with actual authority here, were just watching in interest.

Eventually, a nameless soldier emerged. He took off his face-concealing helmet, and I was surprised to see he looked a lot like Raven from an earlier Fire Emblem game. An awkward silence passed before he said, "So, your terms are?"

Snapped back to attention, I began, "You leave. March back to your camp and stay there for a week. No further terms."

The Raven look-alike raised his eyebrow, "But you will return the Commander, yes?"

I pretended to mull it over before answering, "I will, but you'll have to trust us. When you leave, I'll send him behind you. If you decide to pull something, I'll crush him in an instant. By the time you're back to camp, you'll be out of my range."

Not-Raven nodded. "We accept your terms. Is that it?"

I nod, and he slowly turns and walks away slowly, taking a view careful steps to listen and see if his boss is really following him. Satisfied, he lets his guard down, forgetting to put back on his helmet. Seizing the opportunity, I give a nod to Dan as he frees one of his throwing axes. I don't think the lieutenant ever noticed we ended his life by an expertly thrown axe, but the Commander sure did.

He tried to let out a scream before I finished forming the spell holding his head. I savored the sound of his skull being crushed under arcane pressure, the crackling as the spell tightened and gradually got smaller. Finally, the spell dissipated, leaving a headless commander, a dead lieutenant, and a _pissed off _army.

As I turn around to begin issuing orders, since I know the level and all, I'm met with no shortage of shocked and icy stares. Okay, I'll admit, that _was _kind of a dick move, but a decapitated army is no army at all. Then again, army or not there's still about triple our numbers charging for our asses.

When Greil decides glaring at me is less important than defending his home, he's quick on the uptake. "Well, it seems their objective has changed. Instead of coming for the princess, they're going after you two. Stay inside the compound, no matter what. Oscar and Titania, block off our east side, and try to push them away from the entrance. Everyone else cover the south side; Boyd, Rhys and Gatrie should take the front while Shinon and Soren hit them from a distance."

Ike was feeling confused. "Father, what should I do?" Greil turned and smiled at his son.

"We're covering the back." Then, he faces everybody again. "You have your orders. Go!"

Deciding not to make a sexual pun, I went to my battle station. So basically, I sat in the middle of the camp thinking about stuff while Dan stands over me and watches the battle. Damn, I should've brought my book out so I could study that Necromancy stuff some more. Well, I can go over the stuff I do know...

While I was going over the ritual for summoning and implanting a deceased soul in my head, Dan was getting all excited. "Dude, we're in an actual battle. You know what my motto is?"

I wasn't really listening, "Get paid, get laid?"

Daniel frowns, "Not quite, homie G."

"Hang and Bang?"

"Try again."

"Cruise and Bruise?"

"What does that even mean?"

Exasperated, I stood up. "Beat the men, screw the chicks and take the cash?"

Daniel ponders for a second. "Well, no, I was thinking something along the lines of 'Bitches be trippin', but that works too."

I facepalm, "Yeah, whatever. Hey, which side has the least amount of Daein left?"

Daniel takes a quick glance to the South and East. The south side Daein were going toe-to-toe against our guys, but Titania and Oscar were practically down the hill, taking the rest out. Well, I seem to remember the rituals, and these corpses seem fresh enough to be good enough hosts without much preparation.

"Hey bro, you wanna help me test some shit out?" I ask Daniel. We both smile and make our way to Titania and Oscar.

Everybody in that clearing ether ran over to the south side or are lying dead, so when asking Titania if we could hang there, since we'd still be ok if the line broke and all, she didn't have to think hard. After assuring her Daniel would probably be enough to deal with any hanger-ons, she and Oscar left to take the heat off of Boyd and company. Which left us alone to our own unholy devices.

It was mostly just soldiers and axemen dead, although there was an occasional archer. Jesus Christ superstar, Titania was absolutely _brutal _with that axe. There isn't enough magic in the world to hold the pieces of some of these motherfuckers together. Sadly, it seems like only the soldiers and archers will make useable summons.

I stop for a second. Good god, what the hell is wrong with me? I am sitting in the middle of a pile of fucking _dead guys, _and am casually thinking of how I can bring some tortured soul back to life, only to have him kill people for me.

Oh well. Better he dies than me, anyway.

I sit and chant the word from the book, as Daniel sits in the grass and watches. Wait, if the words in the tomes didn't matter, do these? Let's give it a whirl.

_All our times have come. Here but now they're gone._

Daniel laughs, right before the chorus.

_ Seasons don't fear The Reaper, nor do the wind, the sun or the rain. We can be like they are, C'mon baby..._

At this point, I'm not even there. I have no idea how to describe it. Imagine you got no-clip mode in real life, that's kinda what I'm doing now. I'm above the dead guy that I'm currently going to use, when I 'turn around' and look at myself. Sure enough, I'm going through the rest of the lyrics, but now there's this black mist on me like a shroud.

Whatever, I got stuff to do. I need to pull a spirit from somewhere around here, I can't dive into the celestial plane quite yet. Well, I guess I could, but I'm not sure I'd make it back. I float up above the compound to see if I can spot any free souls. Well, I sure as hell didn't have to look long.

It looked like the bulk of the army was attacking our backside, but Greil and Ike were tearing the shit out of all of them. The ones who stood their ground didn't last long, and the ones who ran lived slightly longer. As Ike decapitated a hapless soldier, I tackled the spirit rising out of his body before it could dissipate to...wherever.

It took a second to get him to stop squirming and screaming, but once I pacified him I was able to drag him back to where my body was. Trust me, pacified is a...soft word for what I had to do to him, but it was for the greater good. After carefully infusing his soul into the corpse I selected, which was now floating on a cloud of the same black mist that was now covering me, I noticed a certain wind mage looking on in what I assumed to be interest.

I managed to get back into my body before starting the verse about Romeo and Juliet, and once I did the mist lingering around me vanished, as my summons was set on the ground. After using a handseal to take control of my summons, I made him stand.

When he did, Soren and Dan just about shit brix. It was pretty straightforward, as long as I held the spell with one of my hands, I could motion to give commands. And since I could cast Flux with one hand now, after practically no practice since it wasn't super complicated, my battle skills probably doubled.

My...zombie looked a little creepy though. Dead eyes, and a big ass lance wound in the chest sent him right into the uncanny valley. Whatever, I shall call him Steve.

I extend my right palm out to him, the hand controlling the spell. "Your name is Steve. What is your name?"

The un-dead soldier responded in an entirely neutral voice, "My name is Steve."

It worked! Now let's try thought-commands.

My soldier turned around and stared at Soren. "Hey baby. After this do you want to take a walk or something." He stated. It was supposed to be a question, but I guess dead guys don't really have much in the way of vocal expression.

If Soren flipped out, I'd never know, since she ran back to the battle after my soldier came onto her like that. Well, only one test left to do.

And it seems I have the perfect victim. One of the archers in the pile of cadavers I marked unusable groaned, it seems he was still alive.

I pointed to a Steel lance lying on the ground. I made a motion with my hand like I was holding a wine glass, then pointed to the not-dead guy and made a fist. This was a test to see if he understood hand signals.

My summon picked up the lance I specified, and walked over slightly uneven, to stab the guy.

With the wrong end of the lance.

I was about to give him a thought command, when my solder shoved the blunt end of the lance right though the guy's skull. I guess all commands must be obeyed to the letter, holy hell.

Satisfied with my creature, I was about to join the fight when an arrow came by and took my creature's head clean off. Unable to take commands, it stumbled around before finally falling to the ground, unmoving. As I turned to defend myself from the attacker, I saw Daniel raise his eyebrows in slight fear.

Behind me was Greil and Soren, the arrow shot by Shinon. Greil bore into my eyes and said simply, "We need to have a conversation."

END


	4. Chapter 4

Path of Valor 4

**A/N: Holy cocksickles, this is now about the combined length of all my previous stories combined.**

**Combined. Combined Combined Combined. Combigiggty -biggity-bindbind.**

* * *

Ah, fuck them anyway. At least Greil was civil about it, giving me a reprimand about not following orders, and how if more than three guys had shown up I'd have had a lance shoved up my ass. Soren was also rather justified in telling me how I could have killed myself, because if I hadn't memorized the process for retrieving a soul she'd be totally right.

But Rhys, I hope that dastard gets a rusty arrow shot right up his rectum. After Soren and Greil had their turns, Rhys came up to bitch about how I was, 'defiling the creations of the goddess,'. Screw you and your fucking goddess, she doesn't give two shits anyway. I know, I've seen her. Technically.

From what Dan heard after talking to Boyd and the others, the usual punishment was cleanup, then confinement to my quarters. Considering I'd be more inclined to animate workers to do the cleanup for me, Greil decided I should go scout ahead of the evacuation path. Since my beheading of their battalion belittled their efforts to...bapprehend the princess, plus the ass kicking that Dan told me Greil and Ike gave them that all but shut down their operations here, we had a bit of spare time before we strictly needed to leave.

In what little reading of the book I could do before getting sent out again, it said that times of great emotion would be a good time to meditate and hone arcane skills. Meditation would do different things depending on what skills you wanted to hone. For Necromancy, it advised practicing the act of going to the spirit realm so that when you had to do it for real, you could do it faster. Seems legit to me.

Deciding to leave the book there because I'm stubborn, I grab my emergency daggers and head off. Waiting for me at the gate of the compound was everybody's favorite axeman, and also Boyd. Looks like it'll just be me and the peanut gallery out there.

Dan doesn't look like he gives a fuck, but Boyd seems a bit agitated. Even from here, I can hear him mutter something under his breath, "Why do I have to babysit the newbies?"

Dan helpfully tripped him when I pushed him back with a bit of arcane force. Putting on a smug grin, I walk over and look down at him. "Problem?"

Boyd grumbles as Dan helps him to his feet. "Problem? I ain't even mad." he said bitterly.

With that minor bit of trolling behind us, we set out down the trail in earnest.

* * *

It took me about zero seconds in the forest to become bored as hell. And that's a conservative number, let me tell you. It's like I have ADHD, but I'm inside the plot of a favorite game of mine so shut up, I have more important things to think about, stupid.

While I was mentally breaking the forth wall, Boyd was busy sharing my sentiments on our situation as loudly as he could. "Arghh, I'm so bored!" He yelled at the sky. The sky didn't respond, but if it did, it probably would've just rained on him.

Daniel, who apparently loves taking forest strolls or something, politely told him to shut the fuck up, since our mission was to make sure no one was here. Which would mean we shouldn't be attracting people here by screaming into the sky. This contrite warning put have turned his brain on, because he suddenly piped up.

"Oh yeah, by the way, we're supposed to go meet her right around now. We should probably go do that now." Boyd remarked insightfully, illustrating exactly what was going to happen.

Or at least that's what he must've thought he did, because my questioning in the form of, 'What 'chu talkin 'bout, Willis?" was met with a confused stare.

"Uhh, Boss said you already knew we were gonna meet this girl." Boyd stated awkwardly.

Before I go off about his presumptuous tendencies, I think about what it means if Greil assumed I knew we were doing something. Did he think this was all in the game too?

Or he forgot. Though I'm betting on the former. Better odds, ya'know?

I mumble an faux-embarassed affirmation before taking Dan to the side of the road and calmly ask him, "WHAT THE FUCK IS GONG ON?"

He chuckles at the sudden swear and responds with, "We're walking down a road, going to meet up with a presumably hot chick."

I frown, "Yeah, I got that part. What about the part about Greil not telling us? Dude, he thinks this is part of the game! What if it is, and we've thrown the game out of our control?"

In hindsight, the slap on the face was probably justified. "Dude, relax. We're meeting some girl, not going to assassinate Ashnard. They probably just didn't put this into the game because it wasn't interesting."

Oh. Yeah. That makes sense.

As we continue walking, my thoughts turn to the girls. For those of you not keeping track at home, I've set myself up to support with Soren, Elincia and Mist. Well, not really Mist, but if Boyd dies like he always does whenever Me or Dan play this game, she'll be up in the air anyway.

Remembering the birth month affinities from FE7, I know that both me and Soren are Dark-types. Elincia should be Heaven like Daniel, and Mist is...well, fuck it. Those were stat boosts anyway, so I'm not sure they apply here.

In the midst of trying to figure out exactly what Heaven's support bonuses were, I came to a realization. Considering all the backstory up to this point, Soren and Ike probably have an A rank support _right now._

MOTHERFU-

So, after dropping that bomb on my stupid, stupid self, I begin planning how to break up Ike and Soren. Then stop.

What the hell is wrong with me? It's like I never left high school. I'm doing the exact same thing I was there, except here I'm a Necromancer and have less homework. Should I really be going after a girl by trying to demolish all her other possible suitors.

Come to think of it, that sounds mighty dickish. Even for me.

Eventually, Boyd calls for a quick break, so I at least can get some meditation in.

And boy do I.

After sitting down cross legged, I try to concentrate. No dice. Apparently you still need to chant even if you meditate, it must get the juices flowing or something. I stand up, and begin pacing.

_Industrialization has...crippled the globe._

_Nature has failed, as technology spread._

As I continue with in-tune chanting, my mind again turns to Soren. How exactly can I get her, short of killing Ike?

_And its my job..._

_To steal, and rob..._

Or could I beat Ike to the punch, romantically? After all, they appear to be just friends so far...

_GRRRAAAAAVVVEEEEEESSSSSSSSS!_

Woah, now I'm there. It feels like the force of my shout threw me ten feet in the air. Probably because it did. But whatever, this stuff is an old hat after some of the weirder things I've seen.

You know, like what I'm looking at right now.

Floating right above my chanting self there is a second me. This copy of mine is quite a bit more ghost-like, with red outlines and a mostly translucent body, much different from a usual soul's opaque blue color. Although that's probably what I look like, since I'm the actual soul part.

My red-ringed copy starts at me in a strong voice, "**Son I am disappoint.**" His/My voice is booming, like thunder coming up and raping my ear.

He senses my inevitable confusion, "**You're ADAM LARSON! You've made All-State and Honors Choir, have a 3.9 GPA and can raise soldiers from the dead! Stop sitting around whining about how you can't get a girl like some loser! ARE YOU A LOSER?"**

"N-no." I stammer out. This is...a rather odd situation.

"**I CAN'T FUCKING HEAR YOU, ARE YOU A MOTHERFUCKING LOSER?"**

"No!" I say. He, or I or whoever is right. I'm a Necromancer!

"**SO YOU'RE GONNA STOP BITCHIN?" **I yell at myself.

"Damn right I will. Ain't no motherfucker gonna tell me which girls I can or cannot pick up. Screw Ike, he's got a princess for rebound."

**"DAMN RIGHT HE DOES! IT'S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE, TAKE THIS!"**

"Wait, what?"

**"Just take it." **I offer a red glowing sword to me.

Okay, well, what the fuck right? I grab the hilt of the sword, and I feel a pressure inside me. It's like the kind of feeling you get when you know you're in pain, but took painkillers or otherwise don't give a lily-scented fuck. So, really weird.

After a few seconds, the sword broke down into a red mist that began to absorb into my body. It felt...good. Really good. I could feel new power flowing though my very soul. It was like it was madding muscle directly onto my arms.

Right before I thought to question whether or not this was a good idea, the mist is gone. Once the mist was fully absorbed, the red-ringed copy got the fuck out of dodge. Speaking of that, I have a body to get back to. The book warned that if you don't finish up by the time your body is done chanting, you're not getting back into it.

Sliding right back in, I'm pleased to find that this feely-goodyness is still going strong. It continues to be strong once we all begin walking to the meeting point, thankfully.

* * *

Oh hey, a town. I kinda knew these existed in Crimea somewhere, but I never really see them in the game. Then again, it's not like this is a huge city in the first place, so I can forgive whoever thought this was too boring to put in. The town was basically a row of cheap market stalls peddling all kinds of trinkets to whomever arrived at the port in town.

While Dan and I were debating over whether or not these Talismans will help us, Boyd ran off somewhere. I honestly didn't care where he went too, especially after some dude rammed into me near the city square. I was about to tell him off, but apparently he skipped the booze this morning and beat me to it.

"Oi, watch where you're going!" He yelled at me in what distinctively sounded like a british accent.

"Ah, piss off. Open your eyes for once, I'm walking here!" I snap back.

He brushes past everybody and grabs me my the scruff of my traveling-magi robe, "Mind who ya talking too, peasant. I'mma official Daein soldier now." Judging by his choice of words, I make a smartass retort.

"Ahh, I'm sorry. An _evil rookie _is threaten me. Consider me scared shitless." I deadpan. As he adjusts his grip to try and choke me out for my insolence, I deliver a swift kick to his genitalia.

He dropped me right quick after that. Dan showing him the business end of an uppercut knocked him flat on his ass after that. Unfortunately, it seems like his friends have seen us and raised the alarm, and Boyd is still no where in sight. And as much as I like to, I probably shouldn't raise undead minions in the middle of a town of civilians. Looks like we got a fight on our hands.

In a Final Fantasy Tactics kind of way. We got a Crimean Necromancer and Axeman verses a few cannon fodder Daein. While this may seem Sue-ish, the fight was over practically before it began. Daniel, never without a supply of handaxes, had projectiles in the air from the word go. A crushed torso or two later, and the entire crowd was running for their lives. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

Until Boyd conveniently appears after the scuffle, naturally. "What the hell was that?" Boyd yelled.

I wave him off, "We got into an altercation with some soldiers. It resolved itself quite nicely, I must say." Dan snickers at that.

Boyd sighs dismissively. "Anyway, here's our new member. Say hello, Mia."

WAIT WHAT


	5. Chapter 5

Path of Valor 5

**A/N: So I was supposed to write this over the weekend. Then I forgot my laptop. So, I go back the next weekend and spent almost the entirety of this chapter getting harassed by dancing women.**

**No, seriously.**

* * *

You know, maybe this isn't that bad. We're getting useful fighters earlier and are otherwise prepared to deal with anything bad that could come up. We also have the next few chapters practically on lock, what with an extra Fighter, an (admittedly overspecialized) Summoner, and Mia. It's entirely possible things will just happen normally from here on out.

And then maybe pigs will fly out of my ass.

Deeply regretting not having brought my Book of Gamebreaking, I got to walk down the same goddamn forest, swatting the same goddamn bugs, while listening to the same goddamn shit I already know be explained to Mia. It almost makes me wish we'd get attacked.

No points for guessing what happens next.

Of course, Daein is nothing if not the absolute master of all things subtle, so hardly any of us were prepared when they ambushed us. And by that, I mean they yelled,"Hey, that's them!" and came screaming from the trees. It's almost pathetic how bad Crimea must be losing to Daein with tactics like that, amirite?

At least we had functional brains between us, because almost immediately we had formed a triangle with me in the center. Because as much as I like iron in my diet, nine out of ten doctors agree eating a sword by way of angry soldier is not the best way to get it. I never knew that axemen were any good on defense, but Boyd and Daniel were holding their own pretty well. I decided to help out Mia, as she seemed to be suffering from typical myrmidon problems, like barely being able to handle a man looking at her funny.

In game, she had the skill Vantage, which gave her the ability to attack first in any melee situation. Right now, she's just moving fast. Kind of disappointing, really. Then again, she's probably focused on-

Oh shit, I should be doing something.

While Mia makes her best effort to slice and dice the soldiers coming at her, I use a bit of Arcane pushing and Flux to keep distance between the attackers and us, and finish off survivors respectively. So, to my front there are lancemen getting cut and flying through the air. Behind me there are soldiers getting cleaved and thrown through the air for entirely different reasons. Boyd was hacking and chopping away, while Daniel was using a steel axe like a golf club and knocking away several very angry, very dead bodies.

As this kept going on however, I realized that we couldn't keep doing this forever. Kneeling down, I asked the girl in front of me, "You ready for some Black Magic?"

She kept her focus on her seemingly infinite attackers, "Whatever gets us out of here!" She shouted over the carnage.

I began to pool my energy. In the sparse reading I could get before coming on this trip, the book theorized you could control multiple summons if you gave them similar commands. I wanted to see exactly how many I could summon before losing control and having to dismiss some. With my goals in mind, I began.

_Tommy used to work on the docks..._

_ Union's been on strike, he's down on his luck,_

_ It's tough..._

_ So tough..._

Living on a Prayer, slightly pessimistic all things considered. Once I'd separated from my body, I took a second to look over everyone. Daniel was looking pretty rough, I saw quite a few wounds. Mia wasn't looking to hot ether (figuratively speaking), probably since she couldn't dodge without putting me in danger. Boyd was straight up not giving a fuck, with dents in his armor and mild fatigue, he was easily in the best condition.

Still, something had to be done. There were still soldiers pouring out of the trees with no end in sight. Surveying the bodies before me, Mia's kills were in the best condition to be resurrected, so I set to work. It was an easy task to capture the souls and implant them, but the hard part would be trying to coordinate these asshats. Well, might as well give it a shot. Getting back into my own skin, I inform my battle-buddies what is going on.

"We've got some help now. Boys, fill the gaps!" I shout. Mia gave a small 'eek!' when three of her kills stood up before her. Reassuring her that they were on our side now, my summons made a triangle formation opposite to the formation my living companions made. Annoyingly, they were just standing there.

I waved my hand, "Now defend me, idiots!". And defend they did; the three of them all being soldiers, they were quite adept at poking things from far away. Sparing a quick look at the only female in present company, I spotted her getting cut from another swordsman before getting decapitated.

"Oi, Mia! You can start dodging now, our new friends can cover me for you!" I yelled over the carnage and screams of dying soldiers. I knelt again to summon reinforcements, and I swear I could see a look of pure schadenfreude cross her face.

_Headin' on down the road, brave brave brave._

_ Headin' on down the road, brave brave brave._

_ Headin' on down the road, brave brave brave._

It was kinda cheap, but using a song that repeats forever is a great way to stay in the spirit world. Now that I'm more or less totally safe, I can focus trying to outnumber our ambushers. Although really, it seems more like we ran straight into the invading army.

I know this might sound hard to believe, but grabbing and pummeling the souls of the dead into line so they can be summonable is boring work. Wait for a death, one two, tackle a soul, three four, beat into line, five six. I wonder if there's a way to get them into bodies peacefully. Let's do it, for shits and giggles.

I crouch by Mia, waiting for another dumbshit to suicide on her. Sure enough, a fighter comes roaring out of the trees, axe behind him like a wannabe Pyrimid Head. He swung his axe overhead at Mia, only for her to sidestep away and give him a horizontal slash to the chest. She was moving with so much momentum he spun a bit, so she moved to his back and thrust her sword right through his torso. Not missing a beat, she got under him and threw him over her back, getting his corpse off her weapon and putting her in the same place she was when the fighter first attacked. Damn.

As his solid blue soul materialized out of his body, I propelled myself to catch it and pin it to the ground. Right before he gained lucidity, I pinned his arms with my knees.

"Waa...What the hell? Who are you, where am-"

"Shut the hell up scumbag, before I finalize your itinerary for your visit to Hell. Now listen up, and listen well. You see that girl over there?" I use a bit of magic to make my index finger grow into a sharp-looking purple claw, and point at Mia.

"Ughh, that bitch! Lemme' at 'er!" My victim growled.

"What'd I say about shutting the hell up? Anyway, she killed you," I gave him a moment to let it sink in, "...and it was so bad, I decided you would be better off on our side."

"Huh? Wait...You're that little wimpy mage in the middle who won't fight no one! Why I gotta listen to you?" He tried to force his way out from under me, to no avail. I shifted myself to a position like I was sitting on his chest.

"Because if you don't..." I move my claw gently across his chest, over to his shoulder. "You'll get more of this!" I jam my claw into his body. As he cries out in pain, I twist it, making him scream louder. Ahh, this makes me feel alive, you know?

Slowing drawing my pseudo-claw from him, I begin again, "Now, what I want you to do is this; go over to your body there, lie on top of it just like it's laying now, and when we get to the real world, you follow my orders. Kay?"

He whimpers and nods his head.

I nod, "Alright. Now be a good little doggie and lay." I coo. He shudders as he gets up, though I have no idea why. To my absolute surprise and slight disappointment, he does what I ask. So, I implant his soul back into his body and return to the real world.

Standing up, I think at my new summons. All of a sudden, I hear a distinctly human voice, "You got it." Confusing my partners and I greatly. To the enemy's horror, a once-loyal axeman rose from the dead to attack his former allies. That, combined with the fact more soulless dead were also taking up arms against them, cause them to _run the fuck away._

Mia gave a cheer while Daniel and Boyd slumped to the ground, exhausted. "We did it!" She cried, giving a little hop.

"Jesus, how do you keep up that energy?" Boyd gasps, still very tired.

"Well, a great swordswomen like me needs to stay healthy. That means lots of training!" She beams.

"Yeah, whatever..." Boyd moans as he slumps to the ground, unconscious. We all have a laugh at his expense.

"But seriously, I don't think I can make the walk to camp, bro." Daniel says.

"Well, I have just the thing!" I laugh as I snap my fingers. Suddenly, Mia and Dan were hoisted up by my summons, and adjusted themselves till they were being carried comfortably. Mia sat up, with her legs out and being supported by three creatures. Daniel was lying down, being carried by four. I was sitting cross legged, carried by the remaining three. Boyd was slung over the shoulder of the specially-resurrected Fighter.

All in all, it was an amusing ride back to camp, indeed.


	6. Chapter 6

Path of Valor 6

**A/N: You know, every time I start a new chapter and see a gaping maw of an unaltered page, it makes me want to go play League of Legends. Which is probably why these chapters take so long, now that I think about it. Or it could've been the fact my computer was broke a whole month, so I had to re-write.**

**Maybe that's it.**

–

I sigh. Even being carried by utterly loyal soldiers from beyond the grave, this forest walk was _fucking boring. _Daniel was asleep, Boyd was ether still unconscious or has a fetish for being carried by large men, and Mia...well, I dunno what the fuck Mia was doing. She's been sitting in that same contemplative pose forever. Eventually, my boredom overtakes me.

"Mia, what are you doing?" I ask over the ambient noise of our escort.

"Thinking." Came her reply. No shit, Naoto.

"...What are you thinking about?" I press on, anyway.

"What the Boss is gonna be like, how I'll do in the company, you know." She clipped, still apparently lost in thought. Wait, Mia's being introspective?

After making a quick check that the sky wasn't falling or the seas weren't running red with blood, I said, "You know, you could've just...asked." This gets a confused glance from Mia.

"Why would I do that? Finding out is half the fun."

Right.

"Well...are you okay? Did you get injured at all?" I'm not really concerned, if she was injured I'd probably know. But hey, conversation ahoy.

...You ever have a kitten or puppy, and sometimes they would just stare at you and cock their head to the side asking themselves, _'Why the hell did he just ask me that? I'm a goddamn cat. Or dog.'_? Mia is giving me that look right now.

"Why, do I look hurt?"

"Nope. I just wanted to see how you were doing; you _are_ wearing the least amount of armor after all."

Mia laughs. It's kind of entertaining to watch Mia laugh, especially since we just fought in a massive battle, yet she still seems like it was a walk in the park.

"So? They barely hit me once things really got going, like after you started bringing the dead guys back to life. How do you do that, anyway?" Mia asks.

Well, shit. This probably won't go over well. Because torturing and otherwise coercing the souls of the dead to bend to my will _isn't something nice people generally do._

"Well, when people die, their body becomes vacant. What better soul to fill it than it's previous owner!" I laugh awkwardly.

Mia's face scrunches up, as if she's thinking hard about what I said, "Okay, but what was with the singing? All the mages I've seen use some freaky ancient language to do their stuff."

Ah, a question I can answer. Sort of.

I think at the undead carrying me to shift so I can lay down before answering, "You know, I don't get it ether. It worked the first time I did it, so I just thought I'd roll with it. Why fix was isn't broke, right?"

"Although, I did have to use some ancient language to cast regular spells, but it wasn't any language from here, anyway." Oh wait, _fuuuucckkkk._

Mia picks up on my mistake quickly, "From here? I've been meaning to ask, where are you guys from? I was hired to bolster numbers, but if you can create fighters pretty much from thin air, why do you need me?"

Well, this is what I get for pegging her as an airhead. Or maybe the game changed her.

"Err, yeah, about that. We're not from around...here." Dammit. I can't use the excuse I gave to Soren in the beginning, because it would be a hard sell that I'm trying to learn dark magic when I'm shown to be a pretty good Summoner already. Which reminds me, Boyd must be pretty damn thick to still believe what I told him.

Mia isn't satisfied, however, "Oh? So you met them recently? Where did you guys meet up?"

Oh shit, how are we going to explain being with a princess? We could go with 90% truth...I need some help.

I give a silent command to have the zombies carrying Daniel shake him awake. "Hmm? What? The fuck is it?" He replied, groggy and annoyed.

I shift Mia's focus off me, "Hey Dan, glad you're awake. I was just explaining how _we came to meet the Greil Mercenaries._" I hope my subtle emphasis is too subtle for Mia to pick up on.

The man raised an eyebrow at me and asked, "So? What'd you say?"

Great help.

Suddenly, Boyd stirs of his own accord. "Ahh, what the hell...? Who-" At first, he's confused a to why he's being carried. Once he notices the massive sword wound in his 'savior', he understandably freaks out a little.

"GODDAMN MOTHERFUCKING SONOVABITCH!" He shrieks as he drops himself to the ground. We all have a laugh at his expense, and it seems this little interlude has distracted Mia somewhat. Let's keep that going.

"Now Boyd, is that any way to thank the man that's been helpfully carrying you all this time?" I give him my best sarcastic grin.

He shoots me a quick 'Fuck you' before I notice something odd with the zombie that was carrying Boyd. He looks downcast, almost...contemplative.

"Hey buddy, you okay? Is there a problem?" I ask him. That should be a direct enough question to demand a resp-

"I dunno. I'se be feeling strange." He replied in an almost natural voice. Holy sentience, Batman!

I think, 'What's the issue?', I say, "Holy jeebus, it's got a brain." This nets me confused looks from everyone, and an answer from the dead guy.

"Well, when I be carrying him, I don feel nothing. Now I not carrying him, still feel nothing." Okay, his speech patterns are a little rough around the edges, but he has the free will to talk. That could be bad.

"Dude...is he supposed to do that?" Mia asks, with mild nervousness.

"No, no he is not. Although, I did summon him in a different way than the others. It could be that, because I didn't have to pacify him..._much," _I glare at him just to see him shudder. It's a fun time being able to terrify celestial forces, believe you me.

"...He came out with more mental faculties. Interesting." Hypothetically, if someone were to re-enter their body of their own free will, would that create an almost fully human zombie? Something to keep in mind.

While I was deep in thought, Daniel hopped off his flesh chariot and walked right up to the Uber-Zombie. "What's your name, bro?" I was about to explain I called them all Steve when I was surprised yet again by his response.

"I am Cain."

Cain? That's it, I've got it. People I can bully back into their bodies will be called Cainites, the regular zombies will be Abelites. I'm so clever.

I get off my ride as I motion for Mia to be set down. "Abelites, scatter into the forest and watch for Daein soldiers. Cainite, stay with us." I command. Everybody except Daniel looks impressed as my minions carry out their orders. This has a side-effect of all conversation stopping as we begin moving again.

As we continue down the path, Mia pipes in again. "That was kinda scary though." This actually gets a chuckle from Daniel.

"Man, if this were a REAL zombie apocalypse, it'd be a lot worse."

That gives me an idea...

It was a dark and stormy...mid-afternoon. Panic and fear were in the air at the Greil Mercenary compound, for they were being set upon by...ZOMBIES! At first, all was quiet. That serene peace was suddenly broken by a girlish scream that could in no way be interpreted as full of laughter. An eerie tone announced, "They're coming to get you, Barbra!" as hungry moans emanated from the tree line.

Yes indeed, the corpses of totally not Daein soldiers emerged from the brush, walking towards their prey with arms outstretched. All hope seems lost for the poor merc-

"New guy, cut that shit out, you might scare someone!"

"Goddammit Boyd, can't a guy have a little fun once and a while?"

"Your idea of fun is scaring little kids into thinking they'll get eaten?"

"Well, _Dawn of the Dead _was a pretty great time when I was younger."

"I doubt it would be if _you're living it._" Boyd gave me a stern look. Fine, buzzkill.

The zombies stopped doing their movie impressions and fell into line when all of us came out. Mist and Rolf weren't even there, although Rhys looked a little pale, and Shinon looked thoroughly unimpressed. Titania didn't appear to give two shits, because she walked out and greeted us like we went to pick up milk.

She did give my servants a once-over, though. Connecting the dots, Titania asked, "You ran into trouble?"

Mia, ever bubbly, was the first to speak up, "Yeah! But then Me, Daniel, and-" She turns to Boyd.

"What's your name again?" She asked in such a light-hearted tone you could call it both adorable and hilarious.

"Uhh...Boyd." Came his confused reply.

And she's off again, "Right! So Me, Dan and Boyd get into this triangle and take out the bad guys coming from the forest, right? Well, this guy..." She points to me.

"...Just stands in the middle and looks scared for a while, then he gets on his knees and starts SINGING!" Everyone was giving her exasperated looks as she continued, "I know, right? So I thought he'd gone nutso, but then one of the bad guys tried to sneak up on me, and when I killed him he got back up! It was crazy!"

I make an attempt to stop her rambling, "I think she gets the picture, Mia."

"I haven't gotten to the coolest part yet, though!" Almost everyone groans, but Titania just has that nice, motherly smile that Mia interprets as permission to continue.

"So anyway; I was SO scared! I mean, I totally killed that guy! But then he picked up his axe and starts attacking the Daein guys! Then after a while, all the guys that got killed came back and made a ring to protect us while he kept doing his freaky singing. Then, all the Daein guys got scared and ran off, so he had his guys carry us back there! Then, he thought it'd be funny if-"

"I THINK SHE GETS IT, MIA." I cut her off. She gives me a pouty face but ends up stopping after all.

Titania gives a small sigh, but doesn't drop that nurturing look. "So, that's it then? Boyd, how far off would you say you encountered them?"

Boyd gave a pained expression as he pinched the bridge of his nose, "Ugh...It can't have been more than a few files from here. There were way too many to be stragglers, so I think Daein is coming back to figure out what the hell happened here." No one felt like pointed out he was passed out most of the trip, it seems.

Titania nodded, "Well, we'll leave nothing behind for them to find, then."

And with that, the final stage of Operation: Get Ye Fuck out of Ye Dodge was a-go.

–

For everyone else, that is. What with Daniel and I not having much in the way of possessions, I made my way to the back of the compound. Apparently I can't travel with too large a force so that we don't draw attention to ourselves. As pointing out that we were going to get attacked _anyway _probably isn't a smart idea, I said I would release some men where we put the bodies from the attack. Thus, to the back I go.

Some of the dead guys might have cool stuff, anyway. What? I steal their souls, but I can't take their stuff?

Conveniently, I was able to use my subjects to loot bodies with more efficiency. I just needed to tell them to look for Steel Weapons, and put them in a pile by weapon type. Before long, a nice pile of Swords, Lances, Axes and Bows were available. Sadly, the only tomes I could find were a few used Fire-

_**Ohoho? Another man come to play? Pick me up, I'll make your day!**_

Wait, what the hell was that?

_**Don't be shy, I'm under this guy. Gimme a chance, better than a stupid Lance!**_

I commanded my zombies to look for the source of what I'm hearing in my head. Don't want to attract attention to the fact I'm hearing voices.

_**You're not crazy, but don't be lazy. Find me, and I'm sure you'll agree, I'm not for any trainee.**_

While I stand there impressed by whatever-it-is's rhyming skills, one of the Ableites lifts a very large, very bloody axe.

_**Wheehehe, you found me!**_

So, what you're saying is, I found a talking axe?

_**Not just any ax, I'm one that attacks, and my damage is jacked. I'm a Devil Axe!**_

Oh, of course it's a Devil Axe. Might as well take it with me, maybe Daniel will use it.

I give it to my Cainite to hold on to, when I'm startled by a voice. "Find what you're looking for amongst the dead?"

I jump a little as the voice's owner is none other than everybody's favorite surprise gender-swapped mage. "You could say that. Not like they're going to miss their things."

She seemed unimpressed at my defense for my situation, "Well, at least you're doing it on your own time."

...

Initiate awkward silence!

…

"...So things have been quiet since we left?" I try to break the tension.

"Yeah. I'm thinking Daein is bringing a much larger army down on us as we speak though, so you should get moving."

I laugh, "I doubt it. They're probably still shaking in their boots after the rout we gave them earlier!"

She smirks and raises and eyebrow, "Oh? I didn't know that things turned out so well. All thanks to you I'm sure," There's something... off about how she says that.

Sensing a trap, I choose my words carefully, "Daniel and Boyd helped. The VIP was no slouch in the speed department, ether."

"So I heard. How did you and your friend do? After all, it's not like you have much proficiency in an art you're trying to learn without tomes." She's not trying to do what I think she is, is she?

"Didn't cast a single spell. Just relied on the others and my summons." I command them all to fall in line behind me.

I can't tell if she's truly impressed or not, her face is still in that same smirk. "Ah, yes. You seem to be quite capable of controlling them. Much better than I expected." Okay, she's trying to catch me lying.

Maybe a little escalation is in order.

"Well, I have courted many spirits during the summoning process, but none of them saw fit to mark me. Unlike you." Aha, she seems off-guard now that I'm on the offensive.

"But you DO seem to show uncanny ability yourself. Maybe that mark is of something more..._powerful, _yes?"

Take that! Now she seems positively shocked. Regaining her composure, she calls what she thinks is my bluff, "Perhaps. Maybe we could share stories sometime."

Activate Double Entandres! "Let's do it now. So one will hear us." I give a smirk of my own as my words reap the desired effect.

A light blush creeps onto her face as she stammers out, "Wha-What?"

"Unless you feel more comfortable doing it in your room?" Oh this is too easy.

"St-Stop it. You're being childish."

"Hah, you're just as cute when you're pouting too!" I could keep this going all day. Better than the damn forest.

She doesn't even say anything after that, her face lit up from all the blood rushing to it.

I gasp sarcastically, "_Soren! _You didn't think I meant anything..._dirty..._did you?"

I sidestep the sudden blade of wind coming at me, barely avoiding it as it splits the Abelite behind me in half. Adam: 4, Soren: 0.

I laugh, "Alright, alright. I'm trying to say that I've got some stuff to tell you. Would you like me to tell you now? Because we need a bit of privacy."

The blush dies down from her cheeks, "Oh. Then-" We both look behind her to see Daniel and Titania coming up to check on us.

"Perhaps...my room would be best."

"Score." Dodged that one too, and the Abelite behind me only got his arm chopped off that time.

Well, it seems Greil won't be the only one who knows who we are at the end of the day. But I can trust Soren...

...Right?


	7. Chapter 7

Path of Valor 7

**A/N: Well, I'm in a bind. This fic is mainly liked for it's comedy, and while I intend to continue running with it, people will have to die sometime. And because a particular joke took the place of what was supposed to be a tragic event, four people are slated to bite the dust in the same chapter.**

** Is that okay? Should I give attention to the sadness of it all, or would you like me to dip into Black Comedy? Leave a review with your thoughts. Also, Dan didn't want a fake last name.**

...Of course I can, silly. If this were Petrine or Jill, then we might have a problem, though.

Soren turns and spots Titania and Daniel headed our way, while I move forward to greet my friend with a double fist bump and 'explosion'. Just then, Daniel looks at me with that strong gaze of his. The one that says _We need to talk._

I arch and furrow my eyebrows, as if saying _Now? I'm kind of busy._

Daniel's gaze does not wavier. Now it is, then. I turn to Soren and say, "Soren, there's something I need to discuss with my friend here, will you wait for me _there?" _I punctuate 'there' in my voice, so as to inform Soren that this meeting was on the down-low.

She arches her eyebrow inquisitively, but goes along with it. "Yeah, I guess. Don't be too long now, you shouldn't keep a girl waiting." She shoots back at me, though without the obviously flirtatious overtones I was putting into my words earlier. Ah well.

Daniel places a hand on my shoulder and walks away with me in tow, after turning his head and muttering a thank you to Titania, who is just as flabbergasted as I am at why he seems so...deathly. Eventually, we reach the same pile of bodies I just left, with my soldiers still standing there diligently.

That reminds me, "Oh yeah, by the way, one of the Abelites found a Devil Axe. Did you want it?" He seemed...off. Like he was seriously considering the consequences of taking a spare Axe along.

Eventually, he answered, "No thanks, I'd rather not get killed."

Okay, something's wrong. "Bro, what's the matter? You're not the most expressive person I know, but you're being awfully serious."

Daniel looked off to the side of me for a long time before replying, "You know we're in the world of Fire Emblem, right?"

I was just about to answer him before he continued, "Adam, people _die _in Fire Emblem. This has been nagging me a lot, what if one of us gets killed?" He motions to the pile of rotting corpses at our side.

Well, shit. He's got a point, one of them coulda been us. I'm all set up to be some kind of hero in my mind, doing things that should have been done in the game. And all it would take is a stray arrow or two, and my dreams of being the ultimate fixer would go out the window. No happy ending, no love, no _recognition._

I play with the souls of the dead, but how easy would it be to join them? If I were to-

…

…

Fuck that shit. I will **not **become an emo little shitstain just because I could get knifed at any moment. But when I looked back at Daniel, I don't think that's what he means. And I agree with him. I should take war more seriously, and do my best to leave my mark on the world.

Preferably by killing anyone in my way.

I step away from Daniel, and nod, "I get what you mean. And for the record, if I die, you're singing _Always look on the Bright Side of Life _at my funeral." We both share a laugh at that.

"Deal, but you gotta do it for me then, too!" He laughed. It's a rare occurrence, Dan's not an emotional person after all. One more fist-pound, and I'm on my way to meet with Soren. I can hear Daniel calling in the background.

"Knock'er dead, bro!"

–

You know, I'm probably not looking at this from the right angle. I've been treating everyone, Soren especially, as I would one of my classmates I didn't particularly like. Except Soren, for the most part.

I muse on this as I walk back into the compound, before realizing I have no idea where Soren's room is. I vocalize my thoughts as eloquently as I can manage, letting out a clear and concise, "AW, GODAMNIT!"

I hear a faint laugh coming from my left, and see Soren leaning on a door, down a corridor I didn't notice before. I swear that was the same one I came down before the attack...

Soren stood up and arched an eyebrow at me, showing how skilled she was in the ways of eyebrow calisthenics. "Well? Are we going to talk in the hall?"

Right. Lamely, I walk over and follow her into what seems to be her room. I don't know what I was expecting to be honest, but this did throw me for a loop. It was quite small, and everything was NEAT UNT TIDY. A crook in the wall to my right held her bed, which had only a single mattress, pillow and blanket on them. The blanket looked warm as hell though, it had a deep violet hue and was soft to my touch.

While I was admiring her choice in bedspread, she took the chair out from the small desk on the back of the room, opposite to where I came in. Absently, I noted that there was a mirror on the desk, which would be useful to have if you're working with your back to the door.

She spun the chair around and sat down in it. Letting out a small chuckle, she said, "You can sit there, if you like."

I was confused as to what she meant to imply, before realizing I still was feeling her blanket. Boy, I'm off to a great start, aren't I? At any rate, I give her a small nod before slipping off my running shoes I still had on from the day before, and sitting cross-legged on the bed.

I sign. Alright, so, I need to not be an asshat. Well, here goes nothing, "So, how's your day been?" I ask, a slight smirk creeping onto my face.

A raised eyebrow is the first thing I get in response, followed by, "Just fine, all things considered. Yours was no doubt much more exciting. Did you end up suffering any injuries?" She seemed to be going along with me, although she obviously wants the secrets I promised her. But it's only polite.

I shake my head, "None at all. Boyd's quite talented a fighter, and with my friend and our newest member, we cleaned things up pretty well. You should've came along though."

"Oh, why is that?" She seems mildly interested, perhaps because she's waiting for me to hit on her again.

"They were terrible at resisting magic. My word, one stiff breeze from you and you'd shear the armor off their bodies." I chuckle at my joke, and notice a small smirk on her face.

"Sounded like a good time." That was all she said, leaning back in her chair. I nodded, looking around for another topic of conversation before the silence set in. I noticed a collection of books on top of her desk, far more than what seemed to be needed.

Capitalizing on the moment, I remark, "That's quite a collection of books you have. Are they all for spellcasting?"

Ah, that seemed to perk her interest, "Oh, those? No, only a few of them are, in fact. Some are just on the basic theories of Magic and it's use, you know." She seemed a lot more lively now that she was interested. I nod, even though I do not, in fact, know what the hell she's talking about.

I notice a spot where a book seems to have been removed. "So that," I pointed at the shelf, "...would have been the Dark tome you lent me then?" I ask.

"Indeed. Have you gotten the chance to read it? I haven't been able to make any headway into learning from the damned book, all of their spells are so cryptic and more based on trial-and-error than actually _learning _something." I didn't know about that, having not looked at anything other than the Necromancy sections.

"Actually, I've learned a great deal about being a summoner. You have my deepest gratitude for that, actually. It's helped me out a metric fuckton." Soren doesn't seem offended by my vulgarity, which is a good thing to be honest.

"So I've seen. That's interesting you bring that up, because I've mean meaning to ask you; when DID you find out you could be a mage?" Ah, so it's going to be that time so soon. Fine then.

"To be honest, it wasn't long after we met you that I thought I could really make it as one. What about you, is your talent with Wind magic natural?" Here we go.

She stiffens in her seat. Obviously distressed, she says, "...You could say that."

A concerned look crosses my face, even though I'm sure I know what kind of memories she's recalling. I can't think of anything to say, so I sit there in silence.

Eventually her traumatic memories leave her, "So, I believe you had some information to tell me?" Her tone was back to an icy one, which sounds very intimidating until you realize you're just about to _blow their mind._

So, let's get that started. Since I'm still wearing the same jeans, my phone was making a bulge in my front pocket. I pulled it out and turned it on, causing Soren's eyes widen just a tiny bit in surprise. Coming up with an idea, I thumb Daniel's number, hoping to all sorts of gods that his phone has as much battery as I think it does.

Putting it up to my ear, I hear it ringing. I've long ago learned that, whenever you're transported to pre-modern worlds, you will still have cell service. Thank you John, for bailing me out in a way. After a few rings, he actually picks up.

"Larson?" Comes his confused and slightly annoyed response.

"Hey bro, what's up?" I can't help but laugh inwardly at how blasé I'm being, despite the circumstances.

"Not much. Hey, you're telling Soren about us not being from Tellius right now, right?" Well, that got Soren's attention. Her eyes were wide, and her eyebrows almost shot right off her face. It was quite comical, really.

"Uhh, Yeah, actually. How'd you know?" I'm genuinely curious, to be honest.

"Well, you'd be cool if I told Mia, right?" I...can't see why not. It's only fair, I suppose.

"Yeah, sure man. Hey, can you help me out for a sec? I'm trying to show Soren I've got stuff they couldn't possibly have here, so she doesn't think I'm a loon when I tell her." I press a button to put it on speaker mode.

"You want to say something, Soren?" I hold out the phone to her.

She reaches out tentatively, as if it were about to explode. "H-Hello? Is this Daniel?" She asks, not quite believing it will work.

"Daniel ******, at your service. Can I go now, Larson?" Soren practically gasps, predictably. I'd like to think Man!Soren would've too, it's a great mental image.

"Yeah, thanks bro. Peace." I hang up, and slide the cellular device into my front pantaloon receptacle.

I look back up to Soren, with a _very _surprised look still on her face. "So, where do you want me to begin?" I try not to sound like a smarmy cunt when I say that, and I may actually have pulled it off. For once in my life. Err, Second life?

She takes a moment to collect her thoughts before finally asking, "So, you're not from Tellius? How is that possible?"

"I'm not sure. Dan and I come from a nation called The United States of America, on a continent called North America, on a _planet _called Earth." I explain with many more words than I needed too.

"North America? So there's other continents besides that one, then?" Soren asked, surprisingly acute in her observations. Although that is to be expected, I suppose.

"Yep. We didn't have any goddesses to sink ours. There's a bunch of different countries with varying sizes as well."

Soren nods, "I see. What's your United States like?"

I laugh a bit, "That's a complicated question. I think if you asked Daniel the same question, you'd get a different answer than mine. I like how it's run, for the most part. They haven't broke anything that can't be fixed, that's for sure. Sorry, I keep out of the 'people' in politics." I decided to not start preaching that you can have the same opinions as a group and still hate them, because it wasn't really warranted.

Soren looked amused that I gave such a large answer, "Alright. Why _are _you telling me this, though? You seem to have all the proof you need to convince anybody."

...Oh. I didn't expect her to phase it like that, "Well...There's one thing I haven't mentioned yet, involving us being here." Now, the hardest part. Please don't hate me, Soren.

Soren looked intrigued, "Oh? And this would explain why you seemed to know all about this world, despite never being here, correct?"

Damn.

"That's right. You saw the screen on my pho- I mean, device, yes?" I tap my pocket for emphasis. "Well, the screens can take pictures as well. Some of the time though, pictures can be animated. Those are videos. And some videos can be interacted with, and can be very complex, containing..."

"Their own worlds..." Soren finished, realizing what I meant before I said it.

I waited for her to make the connection, which she predictably made right away, "So, in _your world, _We're...fiction? Games?" She kept her voice neutral, but I can tell she wasn't happy. And why would she be?

"...Essentially, yes. But this particular story is well know to both Dan and I; In fact, this is the first game in the series he'd experienced. So we recognized Elincia well, even if we didn't know _why _we were here." I explain.

Soren is taking this remarkably well, for some reason. "Okay. So do you have a plan to get out?"

"Why, Do you not want me here?" I asked, without any of the bravado behind it. An honest question.

Soren seems taken aback, not expecting me to be so serious all of a sudden, "Wha-No, no. I just thought you'd want to go home...Do you?" She asks, seeming concerned.

"That's a good question..." I vocalize my thoughts, before settling in silence with them.

Before I can get particularly moody, Soren changes the subject, "So, Who else knows about your...homeland?"

I pause for a moment to pull myself out of the funk I was about to get in, "Ehh, shouldn't be too many people. You and Daniel obviously, and probably Mia if he ever gets around to telling her before we'll eventually have to come out. Oh, Gawain knows, too." I list off.

Soren looked confused for some reason, "Gawain?"

Ohhh. "Oh Soren, have I got some things to tell you!" I laugh a little bit, before explaining almost everything I know about what we'll do, who we'll meet, and Ike's rise to command.

'Twas a fun session, indeed.

–

As it turns out, Greil decided to set out in the morning, so we actually had one more night at the compound. When night fell, I decided to slip out into the forest for some quiet time. There was a lot to think about. I should sort out my thoughts, anyway.

First, I feel like a dick. I answered all of Soren's questions, true, but I avoided telling her almost anything about her game self, especially about her being Branded. Am I playing her? I don't want to; She's an amazing girl, especially with all I know about her.

She brought up something, though. Do I want to go home? Even if there was a way, I don't.

_I did my best to notice  
When the call came down the line  
Up to the platform of surrender  
I was brought but I was kind _

Don't get me wrong, I am by no means an outcast, loser, schmuck, whatever. I have friends, I'm farely popular, have fantastic grades, and loving parents. But here? I have a _future. _I have _plans. _Things will _not _go as they did in the game. I'll see people dead, wrongs righted, and maybe even find the love that I've long since craved. The Power of Love is a driving force for me, you could say.

_Close your eyes, clear your heart  
Cut the cord..._

So, I'll not go back, even if I could.

I am, after all, a slider. I'm not bound by canon's _rules. _I'm a summoner, dammit, and I'll abuse it like nothing else. I will have armies of dead flatten the Laguz Alliance **and **the Begnion Central Army, if I want.

_Pay my respects to grace and virtue__  
__Send my condolences to good_

I guess my parents won't support my decision. But I came here because of a crash, so there's a good chance I'm already dead or comatose. Daniel can explain it to them when or if there's a way out. Maybe he can justify how bad of a person their son is becoming, for his goals.

_Give my regards to soul and romance  
They always did the best they could_

It's not like I'm leaving a grieving widow behind. I was out of options in life, but here? Here, I have a shot at being happy with someone.

_And so long to devotion  
You taught me everything I know  
Wave good bye, wish me well  
You gotta let me go_

I'm...I'm so sorry Mom. Dad might be able to explain what a girl can do to a man, but...Mom...

I'm not going to cry. Not now, not for a long time. So many things to do...

...Mom...

_ "Are we human or are we denser?  
My sign is vital, my hands are cold  
And I'm on my knees looking for the answer  
Are we human or are we denser?"_

I'm singing now, I can't think of anything else to do. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice a lithe figure in the shadows.

"_Will your system be all right  
When you dream of home tonight?"_

I turn to look at the Shadow, and it seems to notice that I can see it. Tentatively, it steps into the moonlight. Soren. She must have followed me out.

_ "There is no message were receiving  
Let me know, is your heart still beating?"_

We're walking towards each other now, my face definitely not stained with tears.

_Are we human or are we denser?  
My sign is vital, my hands are cold  
And I'm on my knees looking for the answer_

I'm not singing anymore, instead I tell her what I should have earlier, "Soren...I'm sorry."

She seems confused and concerned, "...For what?"

"Soren, I know. That you're-" Me? Sob? Nah. "...you're Branded. And I didn't tell you that I knew, and that it means nothing to me, and that anyone who gives you shit about it can fuck off or I'll make them and-" I'm rambling. I take a breath, and do something that could go _really _bad.

I hold out my hand for her.

_You've gotta let me know._

Amazingly, she takes it, carefully placing her hand in mine. I do the only thing I can think of, and pull her close into a hug.

_Are we human - or are we denser?_

We're like that for a while, before she finally asks, "You...don't care? That I'm something horrible and wrong, or..." I give her a squeeze to shush her, before adjusting myself to look into eyes. Brown, same as mine.

"Soren, you're easily the least horrible person I know. And I meant what I said; anyone who talks bad about you will have to have a 'conversation' with some 'associates' of mine." I smile. She does too, a little.

"...Th-Thank you..." She says in a whisper so low I wouldn't be able to hear lit normally. I only smile as she buries her head in my chest again (Hey, I'm 5'11, she's like, 5'5), letting out some tears of her own.

…

I mean **on **her own, naturally. Too manly for crying, and all. Really. It isn't cheesy at all, I swear.

–

**A/N: If anybody wants to tell me I got the lyrics wrong, _I know._**


	8. Chapter 8

Path of Valor 8

**A/N: Hope I don't have any Jamaican readers. I'm not trying to offend anyone, it's all for laughs. Also, PM me if you want to know the name of the game in the Dream Sequence.**

…

**Spoiler alert: There's a dream sequence.**

–

We ended up staying like that for a long time. Live five, ten minutes at least.

How do I feel? That's the golden question, init? I feel powerful, like I could take on the goddesses without giving a single fuck. I feel wanted, like more than one person in this new world would care if I died. I feel clever, because I melted the Ice Queen Soren with just the right words.

I feel _good, _is what I'm saying.

I _also_ feel a movement against my chest, and notice that Soren is laughing...in a way, as she still seems to be crying some. After a while, she pulls her head back and into my eyes again, a smirk on her face, "Promise not to tell anyone I snuck out, and ended up crying with you?" She asks, trying to lighten the mood and mildly succeeding in doing so.

"Only if you do the same!" I laugh, still savoring the feeling of our embrace. As silly as that line and thought sounds.

She looks at me playfully, like she was secretly contemplating whether or not she should run back to the compound and wake everyone up just to announce how much of a wuss I was, before giving a sigh of faux resignation, "I guess I could do that." I still have a stupid grin plastered on my face, while Soren's trying not to laugh.

Christ on a trike, what the ever-loving fuck have I gotten my sorry ass into? Related note; I my language seems to get really fucking foul every time emotional shit happens to me, I'll fucking need to remember that shit when it comes time for one of the GMs to get a goddamn spike in the dick.

...Right, I think I got all that out. Back to the regularly scheduled program.

Eventually, we notice we're still in a sort of awkward hug down by the riverside. I loosen my grip around her as she backs away from me, even though we're still standing relatively close.

…

Ah, awkward silence, we meet again. You doing good bro? I was worried about you, you never text me back man.

Soren tries, and fails, to hide her embarrassment as she notices the quiet. "Well then..." She throws out.

"Indeed..." I reply, just as non-committed. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see a rustling in the bushes and...

Goddammit Dan, there's a full moon out tonight, I can see your shoes through the bottom of the bush. I know you can do better than that; we stalk corn mazes for fun for god's sake. Still, I need to think of a way to draw him out without letting him know I saw him.

"Hey Soren, I have a real tough philosophical question that's bugging me, I was wondering if you would help me with it." I ask, nonchalant.

Soren raises an eyebrow in confusion before responding with a uncertain, "I...suppose so." I nod and take a view steps back, so I can see both the bush Dan thinks he's hiding in, and Soren. I clear my throat before starting the first few notes of a soft melody,

"_Who am I?_

_Who shall I become?"_

Those notes, especially the I's and become, are long enough for both Dan to realize I know he's there, and Soren to realize I wasn't actually toying with self-discovery. Being a bro, Dan stands up and effortlessly continues the song. Which I would fucking hope he would, because we sang this song only a few months ago.

"_Who am I, to dare to dream that I may be the one?"_

Now we're in unison.

"_Who will change the world,_

_Who will make a difference,_

_Who will reach beyond the stars."_

I start,

"_Who am I?"_

Daniel answers,

"_Who am I_?"

Then again in unison, making a really sweet chord if we had three other voice parts,

"_Who am I?"_

As we let the note fade out, I notice Mia coming from behind the tree she was hiding by, much better than Dan was. Once we're completely finished, I walk over to my friend and bump knuckles with him.

"Wazzup mon? You been doing the wank-shebang witch' yous female over 'dere? Ah hah hah, one love one love mai broda." I say with an incredibly thick and stupid sounding Jamaican accent. Partly to confuse our lady friends, and partly because I spent the allotment of fucks I would have gave on Soren earlier. Daniel gets it though; not that his face shows any signs of amusement.

You know, Daniel isn't normally _this _stoic. I wonder if Mia shut him down after he explained everything to her. Before I get a chance to ask, he interrupts both me and my thoughts.

"I'm fine. I thought you already broke the news to Soren earlier; did being a slider make her incredibly horny or something?" Dan asks, completely straight-faced despite all the canon defilement he just committed.

Then again, this is more or less standard fare, "_Nien, Je _came down 'ere for some 'tinking time. _Elle _caught _moi,_" I say, bastardizing several languages. I go on in proper english, "...and ya'll hada come down'ere an ruen a 'appy moment. An waddya 'tink yer doin 'ere, toots?" I turn to Mia, looking more and more baffled as she tries to piece together exactly what the fuck I'm saying.

"Uhh..." Is all I get in response before Daniel cuts in. He appears to have loosened up, for god knows what reason.

"Well, since we _room together _I'd notice if you don't show up. On'na hunch I checked Soren's room to see if she was in there. When she didn't answer I got Mia and..."

Wait a damn second, "Wait a damn second, how you find Soren's room? I would've never not there if she didn't direct me to it!" Her directing me to it may have been a little exaggerated in hindsight, but I was too busy being caught up in the possible fact my friend may have better orienteering skills than I. _That Bastard!_

Daniel gives me a look that screams _Seriously bro? What are you, a kitty?. _He even does that hand motion where it looks like he's pawing the air. That shut me up, even though it confuses the hell out of the girls and probably everyone, ever.

"Well fine then," I huff, annoyed Dan refused to answer my question. "You were saying?"

"Anyway, when Soren didn't answer I got Mia and went looking. After checking out a ways in front, I thought I'd Ninya through the bushes and sneak up on you in case you were avoiding people."

"Good job with that, by the way. White shoes on a full moon don't stand out at all."

"Eat a bag, you didn't even notice until just now. Anyway, then we saw Soren and you making out, so I decided to see how far you got, playa." Daniel explains, speaking more then I've ever heard him talk since we got here. So he's loosening up, coolio.

Of course, his comment elicited a whole two blushes; one from Soren and Mia, curiously. My only response was a shrug, being familiar with our antics. "_Unfortunately,_" I punctuate that in my speech, letting Soren (maybe) pick up it's special meaning, "...It wasn't actually about that. She, as per canon, didn't quite believe that her being Branded meant fuck-all to us."

Soren looked downright shocked and...betrayed? Daniel ignored Soren's look, perhaps on purpose, and gave a smirk, "Right. And I'm sure it was just as simple as hugging it out, huh?" We both give a chuckle while Soren looks like she's about to blow a gasket.

"I'm glad we can all laugh at my expense, but isn't this inappropriate company?" Oh, Mia? Was that what she was fretting over?

"Well," I answer, "Since Dan told us he was telling Mia, I suppose you came up. As she didn't run screaming for the hills, she probs didn't care ether." Before I could get a word in edgewise, Mia piped up for the first time that night.

"Yeah! Daniel was talking about..." She kept going on and on at a mile a minute, all about how surprised she was that the Greil Mercenaries have such interesting people and blah blah blah.

As Soren tried in vain to follow along, I moved my hand as if I was wiping something from my mouth before muttering to Soren, just loud enough so she can hear, "Plus, I meant it when I said I'd kick anybody's ass that heckles you. Or I could at least get Daniel to do it."

Soren snickers as I notice Mia giving me a dirty look while she's going on about...something, and tries to trip me up by using non-sequitor, "...and whistled for a baboon."

Soren looked surprised, Dan was about to laugh, and I gave Mia a dirty look back. "Yous gonna have'ta do betta 'den dat to trip mes up, toots." I say to her.

Mia sticks her tongue out at me before Dan cuts in again. "Listen, I know taking pot shots at each other is a barrel of laughs, but we gotta roll out in the morning. You two are staying out a bit longer." He phrased that as a question, but that wasn't a question. I was to wait here, until such a time as I deemed fit to come back. This was to avoid potentially awkward situations when you room with a guy who is quite popular with ladies.

I nod as Daniel and Mia head off, leaving me and a confused Soren in their wake.

"Right, so, what just happened? First you starting singing randomly, then apparently Mia's in on everything, and now they're gone? Is this kind of thing normal for your world?" Soren asks, exasperated.

I laugh, "No, absolutely not. But for me and Dan, this kind of thing is standard fare. What just happened was basically a test combined with a show-and-tell of sorts. Dan wanted to inform me how his meeting with Mia went, and wanted to know how you reacted."

Soren raises an eyebrow, "...And how did it go for them?"

I sigh, "Judging by how he just refused to tell me anything about it, and how he just told me to stay away from our room for a while, I'd say it went pretty damn well."

Soren's other eyebrow comes up in surprise, "You got all that from that pithy conversation? Also, they're shagging?"

I chuckle again, "If he isn't now, he will be. Probably after we get to Gallia."

Soren groans into her palm, positioned on her face. "Right, of course. I'm going to go to bed, I assume I'm not going to wake up to the compound on fire?" She asks semi-sarcastically.

"Well, we're a bit behind schedule, and I did really piss off a particular regiment of Daein soldiers, but no. Probably." I laugh.

Soren facepalms again, "I'm not even going to say anything. Anyway, I'm glad you told me everything today Adam. I...appreciate your honesty."

Oh Soren, if you only knew the one thing I was still hiding from you. I smiled at her as he moved to leave, and I do believe she returned one. A small one. Baby steps, Adam, baby steps.

After she left, I suddenly realized I was standing out here like a lemming. Checking my watch that I didn't have, I decided Dan had enough time with Mia and headed back.

* * *

Or not. When I got back to my room, I knocked on our door to check and see if I got the timing down. Then I knocked again. And again. The door was unlocked, and the light was off, so I figured it was safe to come in, or _really really _not safe. Taking a shot in the dark, I take a match and light the candle near the door. As the flame flickers to life, I see Dan's bed is unoccupied.

You know what, I'm not going to think about where Dan might be at or who he's with/in. I'm going to fucking sleep.

* * *

Welp, I'm awake. Maybe. As my eyes begin to focus to the sudden brightness of my surroundings, I feel something hard and cool in my right hand. My eyes focus of the object; It looks like some sort of grey metal staff with a gyroscope on the end. Now fully aware of my surroundings, I realize a few things.

One, I was standing on some sort of concrete platform, with several more directly in front of me. Two, there were clouds and a giant fucking expanse of blue to my right. Three, to my left there was a gigantic fuck-off wall that seemed to go on forever in every direction. Four, when I point the staff-thing at a platform, it turns blue and I get the urge to flick my wrist.

So, I'm obviously in some kind of dream. But fuck it, let's get climbing. I flick my wrist at the block to my right, and it pulls back into the wall, revealing a holy fucking shit that fall will go on forever jesus christ.

Hurriedly pulling the block back out, I pull out a small platform that I can easily step on. Taking a glance up, I see the shadow of something sticking out of the wall.

Ohh! A Thing! Let's get it!

And so the climb began, and thankfully nothing was chasing me.


	9. Chapter 9

Path of Valor 9

**A/N: So, good news. I know how all of this is going to end. It's going to be good. Probably.**

**No, I hid no jokes in the Table of Contents. None at all. Especially with nothing concerning the numbering and titling, and what that implies.**

–

Good thing you don't get tired in dreams, because holy fuck have I been doing a lot of climbing. Although, it's rather therapeutic. Especially because I'm not getting chased by a giant baby with a chainsaw. But still, _fuck._

Maybe it's symbolic? The thing I see above me kinda looks like a platform, so maybe I'm going through hardships to earn my eventual rest? Or I have to overcome my personal wall to get to the end I want to see? Or maybe-

_FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCC CKKKKKKK!_

…

Well shit. In the middle of trying to figure why I was climbing this wall, I accidentally hit the block under me with my magic climbing wand. So, the platform I was climbing to is racing away at top speed, as well as the figures of all the blocks I had pulled out to get to where I was. Flipping over onto my stomach, I see the wall and blue sky stretch seemingly infinitely below me as well.

Fuck it, YOLO. I pull out a block to try and stop my fall, and end up ramming into it headfirst.

And then it's black.

And then it...isn't. I open my eyes to soft candlelight and sit up in my bed. Oh yeah, it was a dream, that's right. Wait, where am I? Who's bed am I in-

Oh. Right. I died, woke up in a bush in Fire Emblem with Dan and...here we are.

...Speaking of Dan, I'm staring at him now. He's missing his shirt and in the middle of trying to sneak in without waking me.

"Sup, broseph?" I ask, rubbing my eyes. It was just beginning to be dawn, but I felt more rested than I probably should have been. Dan seemed surprised, and moderately disappointed he evidently couldn't sneak past me.

Sighing, he walks over and plops face-first onto the bed. "Murphirph." He says, before going silent. I poke him with my foot, which earns me a grumble as he turns over. Whatever.

Getting up off the bed, I look across my nightstand. Lying on the small square of wood is the thick Dark Magic tome Soren gave me, as well as the two little daggers I picked up of off some Daein soldiers. Taking the book, I begin to read.

"A forward by Archsage Canas," Read it. It's what told me I had to invite the darkness in, and it might process me. Written in the margin with handwriting way too elegant to be mine are the words, _Spirit Charmer's tenant?_. Interesting, if Soren believed only Spirit Charmers were able to use Dark Magic, she'd be less inclined to keep trying if she failed once before. In a flight of fancy, I take a quill pen from the desk and dip it in ink. It has a very fine point, no doubt because pencil production would be limited by all the warfare and magic fireballs the world is so preoccupied with as of late.

I write below Soren's words, _**False, Me. Matter o' Power? **_I plan on giving this book back, so it wouldn't hurt to help her out. Thumbing through the forward, I arrive at the Table of Contents.

_~Table of Contents~_

_A Forward from Archsage Canas_

_I_

_Eldric Magic: A Summary_

_X_

_Eldric Magic: Basic Casting Kata_

_XV_

_Eldric Magic: Flux, 'Creeping Darkness'_

_XX_

_Druidic Magic: A Summary_

_XL_

_Druidic Magic: Shadow Manipulation_

_VL_

_Drudic Magic: Tangible Darkness_

_LV_

–

_Necromancy: A Warning_

_LXX_

_Necromancy: Preparing a Vessel_

_C_

_Necromancy: Tethering a Soul_

_CXX_

_Necromancy: Control_

_CXL_

–

_Other: Altering This Book_

_CL_

Yawning, I study the titles once more. I've already poured over the Necromancy sections as much as I could, barring the excessive warnings, and I think I've got a handle on it. Amused, I noted that a majority of Soren's notes were scribbled in the eldric summary and 'Creeping Darkness' sections. Looks like someone was having a hard time. It makes me feel bad, actually, that I literally dropped out of the sky already better than her.

Resolving to help her out during a reasonable hour, I re-read the section describing Flux. Nothing new, Flux was a spell of dueling restriction and flexibility. To my immense disappointment, I could not in fact turn Flux into different types of spells. With the way Flux was penned, and how I had 'imprinted' it on my spirit, Flux would shrink and annihilate itself if I tried to bludgeon or block away incoming attacks or people.

Apparently the first cast of a Dark Spell is super-important, as you need to do it in almost the same way every time you wanted to cast it. Flux was flexible though, as you could cast it in whatever casting form, or indeed from whatever origin point as I'd previously discovered, so long as you used the same 'words of power'. In my case those words were _Requescia Timpachi Tenebrae. _I believe it roughly translates to 'Rest in the Peace of Darkness', so that's fun.

Actually, let's re-read the Eldric section once more. Turning back to those well-worn pages, I look over Soren's notes again. She seemed really fixated over a part in the summary. Underlined was the line, "_Eldric Magic is based around extending and manifesting your inner darkness, and using it to change the physical world."_.

Written to the side of the underlined portion, _Related to Archsage's possession warning? III_

Turning back to where she had noted, I see she's underlined another few lines, "_To use a majority of spells described in this book requires you to be able to access the Spirit World. The Darkness can and will approach you there, taking whatever form it thinks it can trick you with."_

A little ways down, there's another line underlined, _"While taking in The Darkness is required to use it's power, be warned that the more power you acquire from it, the more power over your actions it acquires from you."_

Scribbled next to that section were the words, _Not Worth It. _I'll give the girl credit, she knows where to draw the line. If I didn't bullshit my way to a D-Rank in Dark Magic, I probably wouldn't have attempted doing so after reading this book. Although that begs the question, when did I face The Darkness?

I sit there, scouring my memories...

–

_Floating right above my chanting self there is a second me. This copy of mine is quite a bit more ghost-like, with red outlines and a mostly translucent body, much different from a usual soul's opaque blue color. Although that's probably what I look like, since I'm the actual soul part._

_My red-ringed copy starts at me in a strong voice, "**Son I am disappoint.**" His/My voice is booming, like thunder coming up and raping my ear._

_He senses my inevitable confusion, "**You're ADAM LARSON! You've made All-State and Honors Choir, have a 3.9 GPA and can raise soldiers from the dead! Stop sitting around whining about how you can't get a girl like some loser! ARE YOU A LOSER?"**_

_"N-no." I stammer out. This is...a rather odd situation._

_"**I CAN'T FUCKING HEAR YOU, ARE YOU A MOTHERFUCKING LOSER?"**_

_"No!" I say. He, or I or whoever is right. I'm a Necromancer!_

_"**SO YOU'RE GONNA STOP BITCHIN?" **I yell at myself._

_"Damn right I will. Ain't no motherfucker gonna tell me which girls I can or cannot pick up. Screw Ike, he's got a princess for rebound."_

_**"DAMN RIGHT HE DOES! IT'S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE, TAKE THIS!"**_

_"Wait, what?"_

_**"Just take it." **I offer a red glowing sword to me._

_Okay, well, what the fuck right? I grab the hilt of the sword, and I feel a pressure inside me. It's like the kind of feeling you get when you know you're in pain, but took painkillers or otherwise don't give a lily-scented fuck. So, really weird._

_After a few seconds, the sword broke down into a red mist that began to absorb into my body. It felt...good. Really good. I could feel new power flowing though my very soul. It was like it was padding muscle directly onto my arms._

...In hindsight, I really should have thought that one through. Okay, The Darkness got to me by using an image of myself and stroking my ego. That's an unpleasant thought.

Mentally pushing away my character flaws for now, I turn to more important matters. Like how I was able to cast Flux on Rhys without having talked to The Darkness prior. Looking back on it now, how did I not crush the frail and sickly priest? True, Rhys had been off his sick leave for a bit before hand, and he had a magic barrier up, but I believe I would have broken through.

Then again, Tellius mages almost always start out terrible, so I could just have been weak.

You know what? I need to talk to The Darkness again. Let's see if I can meditate and call this thing out...

Sitting cross-legged, I close my eyes and chant, being careful not to awake the sleeping giant that is my friend Daniel.

_And during the few moments that we have left  
We wanna talk right down to Earth,_

_in a language that everybody here,_

_can easily understand,_

Woah, that was fast. Right where the guitar would enter, I found myself snapped into the air, flying right through the ceiling of the compound. Thankfully, I was in the Spirit World, so I passed harmlessly through the building. When I finally slowed myself, I was ten feet above the compound, looking at a very pissed copy of me, only translucent and colored red.

_**Weak.**_

_Huh?_ I didn't see the copy's mouth move, it was if It had spoke directly to my-

_**Fool.**_

…

**You c**_**ould not kill a sickly, pathetic healer.**_

_Get the hell out of my head, Darkness._

_**You've chosen to partake in Our Power, We are only here to collect what We are owed.**_

_I owe you jack shit. What have you done besides empower my Flux spell?_

_**Empowering you is enough. You will pay what We are owed.**_

_And what, pray tell, do I owe you?_

_**You owe Us a place in your mind, an Enclave of Darkness for Us to communicate with.**_

Around then, I noticed that the sound of it's more-raspy-than-I-remember voice was coming from all around me, not in my head. Smirking, I reply confidently, _And if I say No to the prospect of you whispering sweet, evil nothings into my ear at night?_

_ **Then We revoke Our power, and your weakness becomes absolute.**_

_Oh, you're going to totally stop me from learning other types of magic then?_

In response, The Darkness sprouts claws threateningly. Very persuasive argument.

_**We will beat your weakness into you.**_

You know the thing about being high in the air? You can see a lot. Like the bright spots on the ground where your tethered zombie servants are. Mentally calling them out, I gave my retort.

_Come at me bro, Do you even lift?_

Snarling, The Darkness charges me. Recalling Ender's Game and tricks about fighting in Zero-G, I dodge upwards, way out of The Darkness's reach. Sensing that their Master was in trouble, the souls of my Cainite and Abelites rocket towards me.

_Freedom to he who can subdue The Darkness! _I command, prompting my servants to fight with ungodly determination. Good thing I didn't beat the longing of freedom out of my Abelites, eh?

As I flip a whole ten feet higher, I see The Darkness has almost completely forgot about me. My Abelites have sprouted the same purple claws I used to 'persuade' them, and were swinging wildly and brutally. The Cainite, on the other hand, had what looked like a massive fuck-off battleaxe, and was going full-on ham.

The Darkness was doing an objectively amazing job blocking all of these attacks, but it didn't have any time to attack. Eventually, one Abelite's claw struck the small of The Darkness's back, prompting it to snarl and twist around to backhand him. This predictably opened up the opportunity for several more enterprising Abelites to sink both claws in. Which opened up the chance for The Cainite to hit The Darkness with his battleaxe with an audible THWACK.

Being particularly enterprising myself, I sent all of them crashing to the ground. This had the peculiar side-effect of embedding my servants' weapons, and thus The Darkness, into the earth below. How that worked, considering we weren't technically corporal, I'm sure I'll find out later.

Once the struggling stopped, I floated over to them all.

_Since you all participated, none will be freed. But be assured you shall be rotated out at the nearest possible opportunity._

My slaves said nothing.

_**You know, most people make a few deals before fighting Our Presence.**_

I kneel down beside my doppelganger, _Adam had two fucks. He couldn't give any. How many fucks couldn't Adam give?_

_ **...Not a single fuck. **_Growled The Darkness.

_Great! Now, time for a new deal. I assume you're open to that kind of thing?_

The Darkness looked, well, impassive. But I could sense he was surprised, and pleased.

_**We don't appear to have many options, do We? What is it you desire?**_

_Give me Mastery of this world. I want to do anything I can imagine here._

_ **Do you realize you cannot affect the physical plane here?**_

_No, I didn't, _I grumbled, _but what about bringing other people's souls here?_

The Darkness seemed amused.

_**We suppose it could be possible. Your will would have to be very strong to override theirs. Unless you can convince someone willingly...**_

_That's what I had in mind._

_ **Yes, speaking of that. Do you think We will give this power freely? This Mastery will have quite the price...**_

_Yes, about that. _I motion my servants to press their weapons in a bit more, causing The Darkness to squirm in what I assumed to be pain.

_I think your original asking price will be quite sufficient, don't you?_

_ **We suppose...**_

_Right, so, we're in agreement? You get an enclave in my mind to communicate, AND ONLY COMMUNICATE. In return, I get the powers I already have, plus mastery of The Spirit World. Deal?_

_ **We will give you as much control over this world as We do. Know that it is not absolute.**_

_Aww. That's fine though. Deal?_

_ **...Deal.**_

It all happened in a blur. My servants snapped back into their bodies in a blinding flash of light, and I felt like I was hit by a truck. When the light receded, I looked down at my hands. They were an opaque violet. Double-checking, I noticed The Darkness was no longer there.

...What did I just do? Why, I just made a Deal with The Devil, after holding him hostage with the souls of the damned. No big deal.

...Right?


	10. Chapter 10

Path of Valor 10

**A/N: Congratulations on making it this far, as you obviously think neither Daniel nor I are Mary-Sues. To reward this loyalty, you get to see me make a short-sighted decision. Yay.**

**I like every song to have a meaning. If you recognize them, you might gain a peak into the future, into a character's mind, both, or something else altogether. Just remember, not every song is foreshadowing. Like one of these two.**

–

Fuck it, I'm already down the rabbit hole anyway. What's a few extra feet closer to Hell?

As I contemplate my change in coloring, I feel an odd sensation. I feel like someone is gripping my arm, but no one is touching-

…

Snapping back into my body, I note Daniel is lightly tugging my arm. I nod in acknowledgment.

"Time to roll out, man. You get any rest in your freaky-deaky meditation?" Dan asks, turning away from me to gather his meager belongings.

"I don't think so, but it's not like I was tired anyway." I watch him grab a few things I didn't notice before.

"How much stuff did you end up bringing here, anyway?"

Dan pauses a second, then shrugs. "Not much. Ipod, Headphones, and my portable cellular conversational device. Dunno what happened to the twenty bones I had to pay for laser tag with, though."

I nod, and then turn out my own pockets, "Just the phone, and my usual diabetic stuf-"

My eyes widening, I almost slap my palm to my chest, and have my other hand furiously checking my waistband. Fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck. Fuuuuuuuucccccckkkkkkk.

"Fuck." I mutter, simply. Dan catches on quickly.

"Dude, do you even remember seeing your stuff? Maybe it was in the bush we landed at..."

His words go in one ear and out the other, as I calculate just how fucked I am. I've spent two days going without insulin, and something tells me the meals I've had in the meantime weren't diabetic-friendly. In the middle of all this, I feel a slight hissing in my head.

_**What does being 'diabetic' mean? We are not aware of any kind of condition by this name.**_

Fuck off, Darkness. It means I'm dependent on a substance that's _not of this world._

In short; _I'm fucked._

_**Oh my. Seems as though you are in mortal peril. If only you had a way to become even more powerful, enough to overcome your weaknesses.**_

…You can't be serious.

_**We can power your body beyond your wildest imagination, if you'll allow us.**_

I'll take a rain-check on the whole possession thing, but you can...cure me?

_**Do you have another option?**_

I...don't know. Maybe not. How much will this cost me?

_**We demand you absorb ten percent of the life force of your servants.**_

I'm mentally tearing myself apart. On one hand, this is such an obvious trap to power up The Darkness. But, if it means I can be free of this god damn disease that's been plaguing me for almost three years now...

I sigh and grit my teeth. Dan gives me a peculiar look, and asks something I don't hear.

_**Well?**_

New deal. You teach me to drain life from the living, and cure my disease...

…

I'll give you a whole sacrifice, on the month.

_**DEAL!**_

The gusto with which he says that and blasts my brain with arcane forces makes me almost physically sick.

"What have I done...?" I mutter, looking to the floor.

Dan looks at me quizzically, sitting down on the bed. "Adam, talk to me. Are you high or low? What can I do?"

I just shake my head. "I-" I swallow, "I made a deal with a Spirit. He gave me some stuff and...cured my diabetes."

Dan looked at me, face as hard as rock. "That didn't come free, did it?"

I shake my head dumbly, "No. He can talk to me directly, and-" My voice hitches, "-and I've got to sacrifice one man a month to it."

Dan says nothing. After a quiet and tense minute, he opens his mouth. "Okay."

My eyebrows shoot up in surprise, "Okay?! OKAY?! I'm a predator now! Imagine if any-mufrfrff," Dan lunges at me and muffles any speech with a firm hand.

"Shaddup." Dan says sternly.

"We'll be at war for a few years at least, there will be plenty of enemy Daein to suck dry. After the war, we can work something out. Dig?"

I calm down. He's right, this shouldn't be a problem for a while.

"Thanks, man."

"No problem. But seriously, it's time to go."

–

Daniel was not lying, _oddly enough. _Just as Dan and I were about to step out of our shared room, we ran into Mist. She told us that everyone should meet out front, and asked if I needed to do anything with my...friends. I got a chuckle out of how nervous she sounded asking me that, and sensed an opportunity to try out my ill-gotten power. I said I did, and walked away from the pair.

Walking into the meadow, I called upon my assorted zombies.

I mustered up an authoritative voice, "He who first struck The Darkness, come forward!"

Eventually, one shambled closer towards me. Motioning it to stop, I whip out my phone and open a translation app. If I only get one chance, I should use the right words.

After finding them, I call upon the knowledge The Darkness gifted me. Prepare for your first payment, motherfucker.

I take a deep breath as I shape magic above me. I didn't give any form to it, allowing black tendrils of varying opacity to form in various distances from my head. I point one arm and hand out, pointing to the Abelite's torso as if my fingers were a laser pointer.

"_Tenebras bibet de vita," _I intone, sending the tendrils flying towards my zombie. One by one, they harshly ripped in and out of his torso, yet causing no visible damage. As they returned to me, I felt a swell of energy.

_**We indulge in the feeling of absorbing another's life. Do you?**_

I gotta say, Evil feels good. With that business sorted out, I make sure my soldiers are properly equipped, before bringing the rest of the goodies along.

"Merry Christmas!" I say, distributing my spoils to the rest of the Greil Mercenaries. Greil quirked an eyebrow, but otherwise they all took the weapons without ceremony.

And then, we were off!

–

"We're off on the road to Rhode Island, we're having the time of our liiives!" Daniel and I sang in harmony. We were like this for most of the way, which prompted us to be sent to the back. Apparently, Shinon was hungover or something and kept complaining. Well fuck him.

After we finish that song, I nudge Daniel. "Bro," I say quietly, "You mind helping me with something? I'm gonna help Soren learn Dark Magic, but I need to get her to access the Spirit World."

"Okay. This involves me because...?"

"Well, she can't do it. So, this one time, The Darkness- that's what my spirit likes to call itself- says 'Oh, We're going to bully you into doing our bidding, kay?'" I say, in a lofty voice when emulating my tenant.

"And I'm like, 'Fuck no!' So I grab all my zombies' spirits and beat him up, then make him give me his power over the Spirit World."

"And this lets you do...?" Dan was still skeptical, albeit rightfully so.

"Well, I'm pretty sure I can grab people and take them into the Spirit World myself. So if I can get Soren past her block, she turns into the most overpowered mage in Tellius-"

"Because Dark beats every type of Anima, and her natural wind would beat light. Damn son." Dan says approvingly.

"Yeah. But I kinda want to know how to bring her into the Spirit World, so..." I trail off.

"Oh, you want to practice on me? Yeah sure. This won't kill me, right?"

"Probably not. Are you hiding any fatal injuries your soul wouldn't be able to handle on re-entry?"

Dan shrugs, "Nope. Though, remember what I said right? Be careful, neither of us have any re-tries this time."

I nod. I thought for a second there he completely forgot about the speech he gave me before regarding about how careful I should be. Nope, I guess he just wants to help me out. What a bro.

_**You do seem to inspire a peculiar loyalty from that one.**_

Goes both ways. I'd gladly offer up my minions if he needed target practice, no questions asked.

_**That's not quite the same.**_

Well no, but I don't fight with weapons, so I have nothing to compare too.

I clear my throat, "Right, so, just relax. Imagine the pearly gates or something."

Dan nods and closes his eyes, still walking.

I try to be a bit more loud, so that none of our present company looks back to see why we stopped making noise all of a sudden.

_Work it, make it, do it, makes us_

_Harder, better, faster, stronger  
(Work it harder, make it better)_

_N-n-now that that don't kill me_

_(Do it faster, makes us stronger)_

_Can only make me stronger _

Getting Daniel to sing the backup parts helped a lot, actually. No one noticed that I had shot right into the astral plane.

I hovered slightly behind Daniel, trying to figure out what to do. Normally, I waited for people to die before manipulating their souls. Hey Darkness, how do I work this power you gave me?

_**That was not part of the deal.**_

Well fuck you, then.

"Let's see..." I mutter inanely to myself as I grow claws. Deciding I didn't want to hurt my friend, I rounded off my claws.

"Well, here goes literally nothing..." I say, sticking my hand into the back of my friend's head. Finding some kind of purchase, I close my hand and pull. I nearly jump out of my skin when I notice I'm peeling Daniel's blue form right out of his body like an onion or something.

"_Owowowowow!" _Dan says, when I have all but his legs free.

"_Sorry, sorry! Wiggle your legs or something!" _I advise, helpfully. He does, and it helps me out a bit. Didn't really expect that to work, but I'm not gonna argue.

Finally, I manage to pluck out his soul, without noticeably damaging his body. As he tries to accustom himself to what is basically zero gravity, I look him over. He seems to be just fine, on the same level of coloration as the souls I use as my servants.

_**Ohh, is this tasty morsel for Us...?**_

Separating from my body comes my red-translucent copy. But, before he can do anything nasty to Daniel, I try out this idea I was going to go over with Dan. I jam my non-clawed arm into my copy, and charge it with imaginary lightning. All of a sudden, The Darkness's body seized up as sparks of black lightning danced around his body.

Well fuck a duck, it actually worked!

_**Ragggahh! We never taught you lightning!**_

I chuckle, "_Actually, you did. Remember when we made a deal, and you said you'd give me your mastery over this world? Well, I have it. And since this world works more or less in my imagination __now..." _I up the imaginary voltage.

_**Graaahh, you'll pay for this, Human!**_

"_Whatever. Get the hell back into me, and don't try this with Soren. Or you will know my name is THE LORD, when I lay my vengeance upon thee."_

_**Grrgh, We've seen your mind Human. That's a quote from an act-ARHH!**_

I shocked him again. I'm not going to be able to pull one over The Darkness, so I should make these moments count. Begrudgingly, The Darkness re-enters my spiritual form, giving my purple coloring back.

Dan just sat there, impassive. _"Well that was fun. Can I go back now?"_

"_Yeah, sure. This'll be a little difficult since your body is still walking, get as close behind him as you can."_

As he does, I get behind both of them. I place by hands on his back, and try doing the same infusion magic I always do. As his torso gets sucked back into his body, the rest of his appendages follow. This has the side-effect of Daniel crumpling onto the ground as his upper legs move before what's below them. Jumping back into my own body, I kneel down to see if he's alright.

"Owfff," He says, face full of dirt. I check for a pulse, and thankfully find one. Man, that would have sucked if I accidentally killed him!

As I helped him to his feet, I noticed Titania trotting over.

"Everything alright?" She asks, concern painted plainly on her face.

As Dan gets his land-legs back, he makes a show of massaging them, "Yeah, I'm alright. Just a little tired, I guess!" He laughs off, despite probably being in pain.

"Well, we're going to make camp for lunch soon. You'll be able to rest then." She said simply, before trotting off again towards the commander.

I turn towards my companion, "You seriously alright, bro?"

He grimaces, "Well, I'm still alive, so that's fucking great. I hurt like a bitch, though."

"Sorry." I apologize, awkwardly.

He doesn't say anything as we walk on, in silence.

**Since this chapter is long already, I'm going to take this time to thank eclipse on Serenes Forest for being my Beta. Additional thanks to the three concurrent reviewers I've had thus far.**

**~Adam ********


	11. Chapter 11

Path of Valor 11

**A/N: That last note was probably confusing. I meant one of the songs in the next two chapters was purely superficial in meaning.**

**...Although, no one asked me to clarify. So what the hoo ha.**

–

Apparently, 'soon' means motherfucking sundown. Which wasn't soon at all.

So, with a killer ache in my legs, I plop down on the ground near the small campfire in the center of our bad excuse for a camp. I'm under the impression we're avoiding main roads, because once it was getting dark Greil turned around and told everyone to set up camp here, right in the middle of the road. Then again, we'd probably fuck up anybody that dared to stumble across us, and my soldiers worked nicely as sentries anyway.

So here I sit, with barely enough sunlight to make out anyones' faces. As Daniel sits next to me, I realize exactly how much of an outsider both of us are. Oscar, Boyd, and Rolf are all pitching a large tent that I presume they'll share. Greil, Titania and Ike have finished putting up their tent and were setting up another. Gatrie was standing guard around the camp along with my soldiers, with Shinon begrudgingly assisting him. Soren was having a word with Rhys, before looking over and catching my gaze.

Before I could do something silly like wink or waggle my eyebrows suggestively, Mia skips over and sits next to Daniel like a lost puppy. "I feel so weird; I mean, we haven't exactly had time to get into this tight-woven group. Especially since..." She prods Daniel with her elbow, "...you know."

Yes Mia, I'm well aware we're outsiders in more ways than one. As Soren finishes her talk with Rhys, I take my cue to stand. I poke Daniel to get him to look at me, before informing him of my intentions.

"Broseph. You're the best around, and nothing's gonna ever keep ya down. Okay?" I ask. Daniel takes a second to comprehend exactly what I was saying, before nodding. As I walked off, I heard Mia ask what that was all about. Daniel simply shrugged and changed topic.

Good to see our code is fresh in both of our minds.

–

Soren hadn't gone far by the time I caught up with her. "Soren! Wait up!" I called to her, grabbing her attention. When I got to her, I was met with only a single inquisitive raised eyebrow.

Taking a second to catch my breath from running twenty feet, I dive right into what I came for, "Soren, mind if we go somewhere? I've _read _something interesting, and I want to share it with you." I say, being careful not to tip my hand too early. She'll be a lot easier to convince if we're alone, then if we were standing in the middle of everyone like we are.

Her face betrayed nothing, but her eyes flashed excitement, surprise and curiosity. I'd say it was cute, but that would be obvious by now wouldn't it?

_**Yes. Painfully.**_

Quiet you.

Soren doesn't make any outward showing of agreement, preferring to answer in the same way I did Dan, "We'll not be eating for a while." She says in a ever-so-slightly raised voice, adding, "And shouldn't you be on patrol?"

She makes a show of rolling her eyes before walking over to the commander. They exchange a few words before I decide that bringing along a few Zombies might be a good idea. Quickly summoning my Devil axe-wielding Canite and three lance-wielding Abelites with a thought, Soren walks up to me again.

"Looks like I'll be accompanying you. Ready to go?" She says, eyeing Daniel and Mia curiously.

"Yeah. Through the woods or down the path?" I ask, answering her unspoken question.

She shrugs, "You're the one leading our entourage." Deciding that moving four brain-dead corpses would be a hell of a time if we had to go through brush, I point down the path we'd been traveling on a few hours prior. My bodyguards lurch into movement, with Soren and I quickly following.

–

Once the dim light of a campfire was invisible on the horizon, I motion for Soren to sit. I'm surprised she could see that hand motion, considering it was now dark as hell. "You know," She says, sitting on the cold earth, "If we keep sneaking off together like this, someone might begin to suspect something."

I shrug, before realizing she probably wouldn't be able to see the gesture. "Ehh. I've got this weird feeling Daniel and Mia already do."

I imagine Soren rolling her eyes, despite not being able to make them out in the darkness, "Of course they would. They're together, so she thinks we should be too."

I smirk, although feeling a bit hurt, "Well, what'd be so bad about that?" I inquire.

Soren dodges the question, "So, why did you drag me all the way out here?" I roll my eyes imperceptibly.

Yawning, I jump right into it. "A few reasons. Mainly, I wanted to know if you were still up for learning Dark Magic." Even in the darkness, I could feel her surprise.

"You can teach me? I find that a bit hard to believe..." She asks, having a healthy amount of skepticism.

"Well, not exactly. Reading over the notes you left in the book you threw at me all those days ago, I noticed you seemed to have a block. After...progressing a fair bit in my own studies into Elder Magic, I wanted to know if you wanted help for your own." I slip a bit in stating my case, and Soren picks it up right away.

"Progressing? I've read the book too, Adam. How have you been 'progressing', exactly?" Soren's tone was harsh, and I don't really blame her. I haven't exactly been a good boy...

"Well..." I trail off, "...As you know, gaining a proficiency in this kind of power requires you strike a deal with your personal demons..." I get about that far before I hear Soren scramble to her feet.

"You...you've done WHAT?! Do you realize how _stupid _inviting spirits, _especially ones that malicious_, into your body is?!" She gasps. I was kinda hoping it wouldn't come to this...

"Yes, actually. So far, any deals we've made have been under threat of death and/or eviction." I say, omitting the time I promised him sacrifices for curing my diabetes.

She consider this for a long while. As the night air begins to carry a chill, she finally says, "Alright, consider me interested. How do you plan to teach me?"

I sigh. The hard part was finally over. "Well it's pretty simple. I tested it out on Daniel on our way here, and I've determined I can pull people into the Spirit World and put them back again safely."

"Interesting. But how would this give me the ability to all of a sudden use Dark Magic?"

"Well, once I take you there, you'll have to deal with The Darkness-"

"No," Soren interrupts, "Absolutely not. I'm not selling my soul over to some spirit for power!"

"I'm aware. That's why I'm bringing you in; We'll beat a good deal out of The Darkness, just like I did. So, you game?"

By now, I can only barely make out her presence. Yet I can still make out her soft words, "...Alright. I trust you." I'm actually surprised, as I never expected her to come to like us all this quick.

_**You did show that you were familiar with all of them, though. Perhaps she feels she should treat you the same way?**_

Maybe. Wait, why do you seem so helpful all of a sudden?

_**We will get to meet Our kin, if your plan goes through as it should.**_

Oh. You'll have to tell me how that works sometime.

_**Perhaps.**_

Right before I open my mouth to explain how I was going to get ready, a devious thought flashes through my mind. I nudge Soren with my arm, and offer my hand out to her. There's absolutely no reason for us to hold hands while we do this, but she doesn't have to know. After a moment's hesitation, she takes my hand. I'm surprised at how warm and...well, small it is.

_**Did you expect her to have bigger hands than yours?**_

Well, no. But still. Also, stop distracting me!

_**You didn't have to answer.**_

Ignoring The Darkness, I savor the feeling of her hand in mine for a bit more before continuing. 'Right, so, I'm going to have to start chanting. Luckily, I played around with the specifics of the ritual, and I got it to work by singing. So, enjoy!" I chuckle, still lightly clasping her hand.

Clearing my throat, I begin;

"_Well I took a walk around the world to ease my troubled mind,  
I left my body lying somewhere in the sands of time,  
But I watched the world float to the dark side of the moon,  
I feel there is nothing I can do..."_

As I continue, I try and call on my power as easily as I have before. As I begin to panic ever so slightly, I realize I'm being distracted by something...Oh yeah. Calming down internally, I make it to the chorus.

"_If I go crazy then will you still call me Superman?  
If I'm alive and well, will you be there holding my hand?  
I'll keep you by my side with my superhuman might..."_

As I feel her give my hand a gentle squeeze, I begin to feel myself separate from my body. Finally.

The feeling of the cool early-summer breeze evaporates around me, just in time for me to remember I have no idea what season it is. Pushing those obtrusive and annoying thoughts from my mind, I go on with the task at hand. Soren was standing with me now, and since light basically has no meaning in The Spirit World, I could plainly see she was quite nervous. While the pale illumination lights up the world around me, did also enhances Soren's natural beaut-

Wait, purple prose. That's enough of that.

Cracking my spiritual fingers, I size Soren up. How was I going to do this without hurting her? Deciding to work from the top, I place one palm on the back of her head and the other on the back of her neck. Exerting a lighter amount of arcane force than I did with Daniel, I see Soren's spirit's blue head pop forward.

"_Ahh!" _She yelps, understandably surprised.

"_Hello. Try to keep leaning forward, I'm working on the rest of you." _I explain, for once not caring about the sexual connotations of something I've said.

She doesn't say anything while I move to her arms. Quickly deciding to free them both at the same time, I quickly start with popping the hands, lower arms, upper arms, shoulders and finally the small of her back. This leaves her in quite the humorous position; her upper body is hunched forward while her waist is perfectly rigid. I decide to speak up.

"_You're probably going to collapse as soon as I finish, so you can straighten up if you'd like."_

Soren shoots me a death glare and is probably biting back something _very_ sarcastic. I pay it no mind.

"_Okay, three, two, one..." _I say, rapidly palming one leg, then the next. I don't know if she'd hurt herself falling with one still-frozen leg, but I'd rather not take the chance, thank you.

Once Soren picks herself up, I take a quick look around. The washed-out orange blip on the horizon told us that at least someone was awake at camp. While I was tossing the idea in my head about whether this was a good thing, Soren manages to completely get the hang of moving around here and pokes me with her entire body before flying off a ways, scrambling and flipping about uncontrolled.

Chuckling, I manage to stop her mad rotations. _"Now," _I say, "_We wait."_

Soren was still trying to get her bearings, _"For what?"_

I shrug, _"I dunno. Float towards the camp and see what approaches you. We're looking for a translucent spirit with a red outline. I'll keep some distance from you, in case my presence might scare it off."_

Nodding, and finally getting her Spirit-legs, she sets of towards the camp. I wait here, idly deciding to pull out my Cainite in case we need backup.

"_Cain," _I say, referring to him by his name, _"This battle will be very important to me. Do you understand?" _I decide to forsake my usual goal of scaring the unliving daylights out of him.

"_Da." _Cain says dumbly, _"She ez yar wormah. Yous muss protact haar. Yuse can cahnt on me, mahstar!" _He said proudly. Note to self; Cainites develop brain damage and mild Stockholm Syndrome the longer they are active.Still, it's kind of endearing. Like a puppy.

As I peer over towards camp, I see Soren staring back at me, an annoyed expression on her face. She obviously hasn't found The Darkness yet, so I decide to continue my conversation with Cain.

"_Cain, do you like me?" _Stockholm Syndrome notwithstanding, I need to know if I still inspire fear in my subjects. Because brain damage is slow.

Cain stares at me dumbly for a second. _"Yarr. I vill gieve mah life fah yuu, I can has to, rite?" _Acute observation, if a totally incorrect one. He likes me because he feels he has to? I'll have to revisit this information later...

A scream snaps my head around to Soren so fast I'm afraid my spirit will get whiplash. Motioning for Cain to follow, I launch myself over towards her. When I get to her, I see her floating frozen over camp. Before I can ask what happened, a shaky hand points towards something I...flew over?

…

How did I miss _that?_

Clad in a familiar red-tinged outline, The Motherfucking Black Knight stand next to Ike, sword poised to strike him.

"_**And now the final player has arrived...Will you allow your friend to die?"**_

Spoken like Satan incarnate, the black-red figure waits. I hesitate, because all of a sudden I'm not entirely sure The Darkness can't completely fuck up Ike's unsuspecting ass right now.

_**Why not wait this one out?**_

I'm confused for a second, before I realize my personal Darkness is talking to me.

_What the hell are you talking about? _I ask silently, while I watch Soren's emotions play out over her face. Honestly, I'm taking cues from her; If she wants to attack I'll follow, but I'm holding back in case she still thinks she can talk to it.

_**The way We see it, whether this human lives or dies you still stand to win.**_

I consider this for a moment. If The Darkness does kill Ike, then I'm free to pursue Soren's affections uncontested. If it's bluffing, Soren and I can still kick it's ass. This situation is...

...Good.

I turn to look at Soren. She's absolutely terrified. Her best friend in the whole world, the first one to ever show her a scrap of dignity and even going so far to save her life, is about to possibly be skewered by the man I've been hyping up to be Ike's greatest challenge. Whoops.

And yet, the look on Soren's face sparks something in me. It could be my inner White Knight surfacing, because I feel _angry. _Angry at The Darkness for putting my own interests in front of Soren, Angry at this Darkness for daring to try and hurt Soren, Angry for not remembering to put a rock under Boyd's sleeping bag.

But before I can go twelfth century on their ass, The Darkness makes my decision for me. Deciding not to skewer our intrepid hero, they instead opt to smack Ike over the head with the sword's pommel. This has the surprising consequence of having Ike's soul fall out of his body, writhing on the ground in pain and terror...

...Yeah, I'm not buying it. The Darkness tipped me off, because when it made Ike's soul appear, Ike's soul was the same coloration as it. Dick Dastardly HAD to stop and cheat, huh?

Unfortunately, Soren hasn't quite picked up on it, so I decide to move this confrontation along lest someone get bored.

"_Right, so, as the guy who's already experienced this once, The Darkness is absolutely bluffing." _I say, giving the Black Knight imposter my best douche bag grin. It remains impassive.

"_**Would you bet this one's life on it?"**_

"_Probably. But since it's not actually in danger..." _I trail off, noticing the light of realization in Soren's eyes. Atta girl-Holy shit!

...She just blasted the fuck out of The Darkness with wind! And she's still going, throwing impossibly sharp green arcs one after another at The Darkness. Getting caught off guard, The Darkness was knocked flat on it's ass, fake-Ike soul dissipating quickly. I, also getting caught off guard, didn't have time to properly restrain him. But now that it's on the ground...

I decide to get creative, as gigantic fuck-off spikes fall right out of the sky and impale The Darkness's limbs to the 'ground'. This has the side effect of getting Soren to stop her mad berserker rage for a second. I quickly fly over and place my hand on her shoulders.

"_Soren!" _I say assertively, _"Calm down! We got 'em! Now quick, make a deal in your favor and let's go! I'm in danger of running out of words in my chant, so we gotta get back tres rapido!"_

I hear Soren gasp quietly, no doubt realizing The Darkness can speak to her mind. While she works things out with her demon. Darkness?

_**Yes? What is it you desire of Us?**_

Mind if I call you by something different, so I don't get you and Soren's Darkness confused?

_**...Very well. What did you have in mind for Us?**_

How familiar are you with Old English stories?

_**...You know the answer to this question, human.**_

I know, I just wanted you to say it. Anyway, I'm naming you after a demon from _The Tragedy of Doctor Faustus._

_**Seems fitting already. The demon's name...?**_

Mephistopheles.

_**Seems ancient and powerful. We approve. Did you have a name in mind for Our kin?**_

Depends. Do you guys have a gender, as we humans know of?

_**Technically, Our sexual characteristics could change on a whim. So no, We suppose not.**_

So I'd be _technically_ correct in assuming Soren's Darkness is female?

_**...Technically. Are we to assume you've given Our kin a female name?**_

Yes, you are. Lilith, another demon, is the name I chose for it beforehand.

…

...What?

_**...Not going to explain the origins of that name, are you?**_

No Mephistopheles, I am not.

_**Fair enough. We feel as though Our kin has completed negotiations.**_

Oh, cool.

"_Soren, done?" _I ask, tentatively, in case Mephistopheles was just bullshitting me.

I only see her nod slowly, not daring to utter a sound. In my conversation with Mephistopheles, I didn't notice Soren absorbing Lilith. That's a good sign though, all things considered.

"_Do you know how to go back to your body?"_

I again only get a nod in response, before Soren shimmers once and...disappears?

Damn, I want that trick.

_**We could provide-**_

Yeah, don't want it that much, Mephistopheles. Floating back to my own body with all due haste, I quickly bind Cain back into his.

As I jump back into my own skin, I can't help but think...

Lilith, a demon familiar with Soren's mind enough to know what would entice her to action, chose to present a ruse containing the death of Ike.

...This does not bode well for me.


	12. Chapter 12

Path of Valor 12

**A/N: If someone mentions my fic in theirs, or someone gets referred to the fic, tell me so that I can thank them. On that note, Thank you Gunlord, for both the reviews and referrals.**

* * *

Surfacing once again into the world of the living, I notice that it's a lot darker than it was a few minutes ago. Even though Soren and I are quite a distance away from camp, the light of the fire on the horizon was much more pronounced then when we left.

No matter, there's still one more thing I wanted to try.

"Soren, are you alright?" I ask, giving a gentle squeeze to the hand I still found myself holding. Even though it only has gotten warmer from our contact, I can't help but feel the warmth that was once traveling down my body feel...muted, somehow.

After a moment's hesitation, I hear her reply come from the darkness beside me. "I-I'm fine. Is...is that it? Do I have power over Dark Magic, now?"

"Yes, Soren. I'll lend you back the book you gave me, it can teach you some basic stuff. Just remember to never make deals with The Darkness unless it's absolutely necessary." I say, hypocritically. She absorbs this advices without note.

"Okay. Shall we be getting back?" Soren asks, regaining her calm demeanor. As she breaks contact and walks away, I quickly grab and tug on her wrist.

"Hang on, I wanted to try one more thing."

She stopped, no doubt infinitely curious as to what else I had up my sleeve. "Yes...?"

I grin, even though she couldn't see it. Mephistopheles, are you ready?

_**For what, exactly?**_

If you've been in my mind, you'll know. Clearing my throat, I begin singing again;

"_In sleep he sang to me, in dreams he came. The voice which calls to me, and speaks my name..."_

_**...Very well, human. I am indeed interested in-**_

Great.

Jumping into the spirit world again, I find Mephistopheles waiting for me. Motioning over to one of my Abelites, I expel the soul inside it unceremoniously. Without words or my intervention, Mephistopheles walks into and possesses the now-vacant corpse.

...Note to self, beware Mephistopheles processing your soldiers.

As I turn to bring Soren back in, I see Soren and...

...what the fuck? I see an opaque blue Soren, and another opaque red Soren standing next to her. But Lilith took some...liberties in her depiction of Soren. And I know it's definitely a 'her', because, well...

...She's wearing a particularly revealing outfit. A strapless bra and a _very_ short dress adorn her figure, which makes me wonder exactly how it stays on her without dropping off. Besides you know, magic.

I'll try and just make some surface observations so my brain doesn't overheat. Lilith is obviously going to troll the fuck out of Soren. That means Lilith is probably a lot more expressive. Soren's already made a deal to let her into her mind. Mephistopheles is just as surprised as I am...wait, what?

Turning to the body I had just placed Mephistopheles in, I saw him standing above it instead, just as surprised as I am.

"_**Ohhhh~ Who's this now?**_ _**This is the one that got you to me, huh?"**_

Lilith said, forgoing Mephistopheles's usual booming and multi-layered voice. She sounds like a normal, if acutely high-pitched, girl. Which, for those of you not playing along at home, is really fucking weird.

Mephistopheles turns to look at me, clearly not pleased.

"_**Is this the one that We are supposed to call Our kin?"**_

I sigh, _We're not having this discussion here. If you recall, we're on a bit of a timer...?_

It appears Mephistopheles isn't having any of this shit though, because with a wave of a hand everything stops. My body's mouth has stopped moving, the flaming blip on the horizon has stopped flickering, everything is literally frozen in time.

...Damn it, I could have done that the whole time?

…

Oh, Mephistopheles can't hear my thoughts when he's outside of my body. Or he's ignoring me.

Lilith...sticks her tongue out at Mephistopheles. Great, now I have horrors from beyond the veil of time and space acting like five year-olds.

"_**Wow, I can see you're a barrel of laughs. What does my master see in someone who takes THAT guy for a benefactor?"**_

Now, this is probably my turn to get offended. It's too bad I'm barely containing laughter as Mephistopheles absolutely loses his shit.

"_**How DARE YOU? HAST THINE NO SHAME, YOU HARLOT? I seeith thou prancing about like some ninny schoolgirl, on her first day to the market! Dost thou comprehend thine strength, thine influence?!"**_

Wow, he mad. That was come pretty interesting Ye Olde English, as well. Just how old is Mephistopheles? I couldn't have named him his own name, right? Regardless, Lilith seems highly amused.

"_**Aww~! What's the matter? Grumpy old Mephisto**_ **_sad that all of The Void isn't as archaic as he is?"_**

"_**Dost thou wish to go, bitch?"**_

"_**Bring it, Gramps!"**_

Sensing this was about to get _very_ bad _very _quickly_, _I dived forward to knock Soren out of the way of their little bitch-fight. Just as I grabbed and pulled her away, Mephistopheles shot a massive cloud of black lightning towards Lilith. She took the hit full force, but shot a ball of condensed fuckary back at Mephistopheles, which in turn blew up right in his face. I guess being an elder demon or something means you don't have to dodge?

As they continued hashing out family issues, I checked on Soren. She still seemed to be in a daze, but was recovering quickly.

"_So, how did you get into the Spirit World without me?" _I asked, deciding to ignore the apocalyptic clash raging on behind us. She took one look over my shoulder and had similar thoughts.

"_It was something...Lilith did? Why are you calling her Lilith, by the way?"_

"_It's a pun that only people back home would know, and of those only people into a tabletop game's lore. Actually, I'm naming all my summons by tier-"_

Just then, I heard Mephistopheles cry out in anger;

"_**YOU CRAVEN WHORE! IS THINE POWER SO INFIDECIMAL THAT THOU WOULD SUCCUMB TO TRICKARY?!"**_

Turning around, I see that Lilith did indeed succumb to something. What though, I'm not entirely sure.

Lilith and Mephistopheles were standing quite close to one another. This didn't seem like a cause for such alarm, until I saw what Lilith was doing with her hand. She had one arm raised to her head, with the index finger extended and making small circles in the air. I hypothesized this had something to do with why Mephistopheles was practically trying to gnaw his way out of some invisible grip.

Now, this looked familiar. An idea forming rapidly in my mind, I call out to the apparent victor, _"Hey, Lilith!"_

Lilith turned to look at me quizzically, as if to ask me who I was talking to. Ignoring her lapse in memory, I call out again, _"Can you power me up like Mephistopheles can?"_

Lilith looked annoyed and shrugged her shoulders,

"_**I dunno. Probably. But isn't that ol' Mephiso's job?"**_

I turn to look Mephistopheles dead in the eye, as he latched onto my meaning immediately.

"_**Would thou enjoy being able to power other elemental spells? We can even give thou the knowledge to replicate the magical recipe for thine book-"**_

"_Deal!" _I yell quickly, a second before Lilith realized what just happened.

I snap my fingers, and suddenly every soul bound by me leaps out to my defense. This shocks Lilith enough to drop Mephistopheles from her grip, which in turn allows Mephistopheles to grab her himself. As amusing as it was seeing a copy of me manhandling a copy of Soren, I had bigger things to deal with. I raise my arm, pointing at Lilith, and give a single command.

"_Take."_

With a roar, Cain charged in, leaving the Abelites trailing behind silently but with faces of steel. Lilith yelled as she struggled in Mephistopheles's grasp, before being quieted by Cain shoving his fuck-off axe blade into her chest. Mephistopheles, wisely remembering that I wasn't exactly specific in my orders, flashed over towards me as my soldier's souls continued impaling Lilith onto the ground.

We met gazes for only a second, but in that time I saw the first flash of an emotion besides hate in his eyes. Don't get me wrong, there was plenty of hate in his eyes, but gratitude and smug satisfaction as well.

"_**My thanks. We had a deal...?"**_

I nod, allowing him to proceed. Nodding back in kind, he slams another burst of power into my chest, and it hurts no less than the last time he did it. I take a small bit of comfort in the fact that I've made pacts with demons to gain a quick level twenty, and will be rolling over Daein troops for a while.

Seeing Lilith struggle futility, I take the time to ask a question that's been begging me for about four seconds. _"Mephistopheles, how come I don't have a Spirit Mark?"_

Mephistopheles raises a single eyebrow before responding,

"_**Come again? Are you mistaking Us for one of those lowly elementals?"**_

I copy my...copy's expression. He takes note of my ignorance and sighs,

"_**Your stunning levels of ignorance continues to astound Us. To preemptively answer your next stupid question, yes elementals are inferior to Us denizens of The Void. We are formed and refined by only the finest processes of both the Immaterium and material world."**_

Sensing the opportunity for a potentially handy exposition dump, I continue asking 'stupid' questions like, _"So Elemental Spirits are not...refined?"_

I can practically feel Mephistopheles rolling his eyes at me, giving me an accurate approximation of how it feels when I do this to other people. It's annoying, in short.

"_**Ohh, so close. Actually, those Elementals were created by the twin goddesses Ashera and Yune at the dawn of this world's existence. They come from and influence this planet like the janitors they deserve to be, while sophisticated spirits like Us influence the shape and fates of the actually sentient beings."**_

"_So it's purely coincidence that those elementals have made more pacts with people than any spirit of The Void, then?"_

"_**SILENCE! 'Tis no issue of Ours that you pathetic humans cannot muster up the energies to call out to one of Us!"**_

"_So you should be thanking me for giving you something to do, huh?"_

"_**Human, We will not thank you even as the most foul of Stygian pits comes to claim Our very essence."**_

"_Harsh. But what makes you guys so great, anyway? What's with the whole Immaterium thing?"_

I feel Mephistopheles huff at me for changing the subject off of my shortcomings. I guess this means I'm going to be running out of exposition soon.

"_**We've neither the time nor the patience to explain to you the glories of The Void. Suffice to say, all things that exist in the material plane exist as well in The Void. In there, The Void tempers its essence, forming it anew into a more powerful form. It is the duty of that spirit to then find its origin, claim the inferior's energies for their own, and return to The Void to be reformed again."**_

"_So when I entered the Spirit World for the first time, my own Void-infused soul sought me out to kill me, then go back home and do it again to some other poor sod?"_

"_**Precisely. If it helps, your death will fuel my powers for a long time after you are rotting in putrescence."**_

"_Actually, it kind of does, because no matter what happens to me, someone I at least respect benefits from my death."_

Mephistopheles pauses, and looks at me for a moment. I can imagine a manly tear running down the corner of one eye, and it's hilarious.

"_**...We thank you for Your understanding, however limited it may be. Any more questions for Us?"**_

I can't quite place it, but I get a really big feeling that he's changed how he's addressing me. For better or for worse.

"_Just one. How powerful are the biggest, baddest Void spirits?"_

Mephistopheles stiffens as he answers my final question,

"_**The Elders of The Void are absolutely primordial. They will have consumed more souls in a week than We may in Our entire lifespan. They come not from one human's individual spirit, but from ****concepts far more old and powerful. Among them are the Elder Void spirits of Hunger, Curiosity, and Adaptation, named Cho'gath, Kog'Maw and Kha'Zix respectively. The oldest of Us has no name, existing since and possibly before the dawn of reality itself, thus representing Corruption."**_

I think for a moment. All but one of those spirits are characters in League Of Legends. However, Mephistopheles has made the allusion to the fact The Darkness can cross separate plains of reality, so could those three getting kills in LoL end up screwing me over here? That's...not a pleasant thought at all.

"_**Now that you assholes are done with the history lesson, LET ME THE FUCK GO!"**_

I hear Lilith scream out some ways from us. Oh yeah, I had my zombies pin her to the ground. It was also at this moment that I realized a hand was lightly gripping my arm. Turning my head, I almost jump at the sight of Soren, whom I forgot was standing literally right next to me.

"_Would it be wise to deal with Lilith now? I have a feeling she'll be a lot more receptive to demands in her current state." _Soren says. I feel so proud of her and myself that in the moment that I pause before opening my mouth to answer, Mephistopheles does it for me, the bastard.

"_**It would not be a bad idea, girl. He got me to share my domination over this realm under similar circumstances."**_

I relish the look of surprise, awe and respect coming from the only other mortal being in this realm before it getting ruined by said mortal's companion.

"_**YOU WHAT?! MEPHISTO, ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE?! WHY IN THE NAME OF THE OLD ONES WOULD YOU SHARE SUCH POWER WITH A MORTAL?!"**_

I sense surprise coming from everything present, which only further heightens my own surprise. Lilith only roars in unbridled fury at Mephistopheles's silence. After she calms down somewhat, she stares directly at me with both fire and ice in her eyes.

"_**You, human, have been graced with a mere Voidling. Pray you do not cross one such as I, or you will know the TRUE power of The Void!"**_

Amused, I feel Mephistopheles brisling with anger beside me. As Lilith is still pinned and helpless, Mephistopheles took the time to flash in front of Soren.

"_**We retract Our statement. This one is obviously acting irrationally, and in His interests regarding your safety..."**_

Mephistopheles raised a copy of my arm to point at me.

"_**...We advise you not to deal with Lilith."**_

"_Wait," _I interrupt, _"If she's acting irrationally, then wouldn't we stand a chance of getting a better deal?"_

Mephistopheles nods.

"_**It would seem as though that were the case. However, there is also the chance she may take your deal far more literally than you may have intended, if you understand Our meaning."**_

I frown. _"Damn it, Mephistopheles is right. She's going to go Literal Genie on our ass if you try and deal with her. Your call though, Soren."_

She has a look of intense determination on her face as she contemplates her next course of action.

"_...Mephistopheles, you never indirectly answered Adam's indirect question. Can Lilith give Adam powers, and by extension can you do the same for me?"_

"_**...Such things are within Our power, though We have a feeling Lilith would not be caught dead dealing with Him. What did you have in mind, Human?"**_

"_Can you give me the power to block out her voice within my mind?"_

It was at this precise moment that Mephistopheles gave Soren the most wicked fucking grin I've ever seen in my life.

"_**We would relish the privilege, if You would be so kind to give it to Us."**_

Soren only smirks as she offers a handshake.

"_Then we have a deal?"_

"_**Deal. But this power is not given in the same manner. As such, do try not to resist..."**_

Suddenly, Mephistopheles swoops past Soren's outstretched arm and gives her a deep kiss on her unsuspecting lips. With my fists crackling with jealous arcane energy, I go to sock him one before he flash-steps away to a still-prone Lilith. From a distance, I see Lilith's smug grin as she leans forward to receive a similar kiss. This thoroughly creeps me out, not in the least because of the possible incestuous undertones this situation carries.

After they...finish, Mephistopheles flash-steps over to us and bows.

"_**Speak to Us again when You desire the silence between you two to be broken once more. Au Revoir."**_

With that douchebaggy French departure, he absorbs himself into my soul once more. Sensing the conversations over, Lilith appears to be allowed to do the same. Soren says nothing, looking at me with unreadable eyes before shimmering back into her body. Sighing, I dive back into my body as well.

* * *

The walk back to camp is silent between Soren and I. It's a wildly different story between Mephistopheles and I, however. Why the hell did you feel the need to do that, again?

_**Seemed like fun at the time. And as it turns out, it certainly was!**_

You know I'm going to get you back for this, right?

_**Yeah, yeah. But maybe if You're a good host, We would be inclined to share the memory with you.**_

I'd rather earn those experiences myself, thank you very much.

_**Suit Yourself.**_

And another thing, how come you didn't give me my Spirit Mark like I asked?

_**You didn't ask, fool.**_

...Well I want one. A badass one. One where it looks like a scar going down the right side of my face, and glows when I get angry or annoyed and stuff.

_**...Very well, We shall work on it as you sleep.**_

Good.

After the short but cold walk, we find our way back to camp. The fire has long since died, and no happy couples had fallen asleep together beside it in a sickeningly cute manner. Which reminds me...

"Well, this is where we part for the night, yes?" I ask, optimistically hoping the answer would be no.

Soren only nods, the events of the day no doubt taking a toll on her.

It almost makes it unfair when I take a page from Mephistopheles's playbook and swoop in to give her a kiss on the cheek, like I had done many days earlier. However, to my delight, she did not jump away or recoil in disgust. Well, she might have made some kind of disapproving face in the darkness of night, but she didn't move away at least. After waiting a heartbeat for a reaction and getting none, I cut my losses and begin walking to my tent, after saying goodnight.

What I hear next almost makes me fall flat on my face.

"Thank you, Adam..." As I whip around to continue this potentially beneficial line of conversation, I find she has already vanished into the night.

Still, Rule Number 32; enjoy the little things.


	13. Chapter 13

Path Of Valor 13

**A/N: I'm downright surprised it took twelve chapters for someone to call me a Gary-stu. Still, no hard feelings, as I said during our (surprisingly civil) conversation. For those of you not monitoring my communications, I chalked the situation up to the dissonance between what I plan for in the future vs. what I can show now. If I had all the time and patience in the world, I could show every subtle action building every relationship, every intricacy in my Magic system, etc.**

**But I don't, so I can't, and this leads me to show you Adam gaining powers seemingly without counterbalance, or Soren being flanderized into something she isn't. But I'm asking you to trust me to explain all this to you sometime. Which you must, since you made it this far.**

–

The next morning, I woke up to the prodding of my friend. By that I mean Daniel found a stick and was poking me in the face with it, whether I was awake or not. Eventually deciding going back to sleep wouldn't be worth whatever he was going to try _next, _I grab the stick as it is looming over me and snap it in half. This, predictably, caused absolutely no reaction from my friend. Equally predictably, Mia (who was in our tent for god knows what reason) meeped in shock and surprise.

As predictably as my friends' reactions to this event were, I'm sure Dan wasn't surprised when I didn't quite remember where we were, or why Mia was with him. I guess you could say losing a life you were rather heavily invested in isn't something you got over casually.

Well, you COULD say that, but I'd like to point out I've adjusted quite well, thank you very much.

At any rate, everyone present got over their issues by the time I sat up and yawned. Fucking hell, I'm tired...

"Breakfast is some eggs and dried meat. Just like home, huh?" Daniel smirked. I guess he was telling the truth, as I did indeed have to deal with a Diabetic's diet in my previous life. Yet truthfully, I was far more interested in just how Mist/Oscar were able to cook eggs without modern pots and pans. I mean, I'm sure you could do it, but I have no idea how...

Stifling the urge to yawn again and go back to sleep, I feel around dumbly for my things. Taking a quick stock of my meager belongings in the form of Soren's Book, two increasingly-pitiful becoming daggers (that I could probably never even use if I needed to), my half-battery smartphone cum Macguffin, and...

...the fuck?

I stare at my right hand incredulously, as if I had grown another finger. There, adorning my right ring finger and straight-up not giving a fuck in regards to the accident, the last few days and apparently my memory, was my Class ring. This might not seem like a big deal, but this piece of metal survived where my lanyard didn't. Now that I think about it, my lanyard was a lot looser-fitting than this ring, but I'm still surprised.

Dan takes a look at my ring, "Oh, your ring. Does it still look okay? I doubt we're going to be able to use the warranty here..." He smirks.

Surprisingly, my ring came out with relatively little damage. There were scorch marks all around it, which painted a very low chance that my original body is even recognizable, let alone alive. It was still a dull silver, with an Onyx stone and my school's symbol imprinted in silver over it. On the left side below a tiny diamond were chess pieces and the caption, 'FTW LOL'.

I'd like to think future-me would've still had my old sense of humor. Don't look at me like that.

The right side was nothing special; below an identical diamond was a Treble cleft and 'ADAM'. I turned my ring around on my finger a few times in thought, before giving Dan the bird with my ring-finger.

"See this?" I ask, "This is proof that we're not going back home. My ring has scorch marks all around it, so there's a pretty good chance our bodies are FUBAR."

Dan looks at my ring. I can see the gears behind his eyes turn, no doubt deciding if it really is worthwhile attempting to go home. Mia is also looking very skittish, having no real reason to be in the conversation and well aware of it. I am looking at the bottom of my ring, idly deciding that these scorch marks don't look too bad. They give the ring character, I think.

After a bit, he looks directly at me again. "Say we stay here. What then? You have a plan yet?"

I grin, "An outline. Want to help?"

I see him take a glance at Mia, and back in my direction, "...Yeah, why not? Is Mia going to take part in our meeting, or...?"

I shake my head, and look sadly at the girl in question. "Sorry Mia, this one'll have to be private. There will be some...personal things involved." I trail off.

Mia takes no time to get up, no doubt eager to escape the awkward situation that was already unfolding. "No no, it's no trouble! I'll leave you boys to your business. Maybe now I can see what your thing with Soren was about last night!"

She jumps up with a mischievous glint in her eye, as I instantly regret letting her leave. I look to Dan for some sympathy, but only receive an amused shrug in response, as if to say 'Not my problem'. I'm not _worried _per se, but I feel some sympathy of my fellow mage. Sometimes that endless fountain of energy can wear down even the best of us.

"Anyway, let's get down to business-" I begin, before getting interrupted.

"To defeat the Huns?"

...There was a charged silence.

"...Obviously. Now the first thing we should do, is make a list of everyone we know according to expendability." I say, ignoring wayward Disney puns. This had the obvious side-effect of sucking all the humor out of the room, as Daniel was forced to switch mental gears.

Daniel sighs, "You know, this is a good idea and all, but don't you feel that planning for failure isn't exactly optimistic?"

I raise my hands sarcastically, "Yes, and I've made a reputation for myself as an optimist, haven't I? Besides, you're the one that warned me we're probably not immune to death."

Daniel grumbles, "Yeah, and I'm starting to regret it."

I roll my eyes at my compatriot, "Meh, I'd have figured it out anyway. Then I'd brood about it, maybe do a monologue consisting entirely of navel-gazing, and then everyone would call me a whiny bitch and no one would get anywhere with this whole war thing going on."

Daniel kept his face decidedly neutral, but nodded. "True 'dat. What criteria is this list on? People _we consider_ expendable, or people the _game considers_ expendable?"

I smirk, "We both know that list will probably line up. Although, I don't think bumping two names to the top of the list will hurt anything."

Daniel gains a mischievous glint in his eye, not unlike the one I'd seen in his lady friend's eye earlier. "Of course, Mia's naturally going to be the most important to protect, right? Especially since her and I make an unstoppable team, what with cornering the Weapon Triangle and all."

I blow a raspberry at him, "Fuck that, Soren and I are the most overpowered. She'll have Anima magic, Dark magic and probably Staff training by the time we hit 20/20. Or the actual-life equivalent. Add that to my Dark Magic, my ability to spam the enemies with their fallen friends, and knife training from Volke if I ever manage to persuade him to give me some, and you have literal walking gods of death."

Daniel wags his finger at me, "Ah ah ah! That's a whole lot of maybes there, mister. Mia and I already fuck bitches and get money, so she's obviously the MVP."

I spread my fingers through my hair in slow motion, like a douche-bag, "Ah ah ah, but Mia's a political dead-end."

Daniel's eyebrows almost shoot off his forehead. "Wait, what? Go back, are you actually saying what I think you're saying?"

I feel an almost feral grin spread on my face, "Well, since there's going to be a vacancy in the Daein throne after the war, and this whole group will have the gratitude of no less than four head-of-states, I'm thinking I can cash in a favor or two. And if a certain person's lineage were to be revealed..."

"...You could ask the indebted rulers to recognize their legitimacy. Damn son, how long have you been thinking about this?" Daniel seemed pleasantly surprised.

"Not long after I took stock and realized I was attracted to her, why?"

Daniel just grins at me. "_She take my money, when I'm in neeeeeeeeeeed. Yeah she's a triflin, friend indeed. Oh you a gold-_"

I smack his leg with my ring-hand. "Fuck off, it's not like that. I actually really like Soren, bastard. That means I'll do everything in my power to make her happy, and bringing her to her homeland should do the trick."

"Right, and I'm sure it's just a side effect you're setting yourself up to be a king? Larson, you know what will happen if you get that throne."

I grin, "Yeah, but tell me anyway. I want to hear you say it."

"If you and Soren take control of Daein, the rest of the world starting with Begnion will be absolutely fucked."

My grin stretches wider, "No doubt about it. Those motherfuckers will pay severely for all the shit they've pulled and will pull. But I've got to get some well-placed murder on, so could we go back to the list?"

Daniel waves his hand, permitting me to continue.

I do so. "Right, so, Let's just say the girls are tied for first and we protect them equally. Fair?"

"Fair."

"Sweet. Next up should definitely be Ike, because the prophecy and all that shit, followed by..."

We went on like this for a while, trading back and forth about who should be protected over who, who really needs to not make it out of this conflict alive, and other such matters pertaining to the future. I think it was the first time we had a normal conversation since we 'died'.

–

Fuck man, Larson worries me sometimes. It was kinda small at first, he'd just drop into sulky emo moods more often. Like this shit with Soren, he'd never have actually taken what I said those days ago as such serious business. At the time, I wasn't even being too serious myself. Larson's always acted a little older than he really was, as I'm guessing diabetes would be a pretty fucking big wake-up call to anyone coasting through life.

But it's not even that. Back home, Larson and I would occasionally tell dead baby jokes and make other forms of pitch-black humor, but now...

He's really serious. We just spent time going over who we wanted to live or die, as if we had that right. This plan he's setting up with Soren might not end well, ether...

Larson said he'd be out quick to get the last of the food. As I told that to a now-relieved Mist, I notice Mia had found me and was sauntering up towards me. I nodded in recognition, and we walked around the camp perimeter a bit, after getting permission by Greil.

"Soooooo..." She drags out, "How'd your man-talk go?" She asks, animated. You know, Mia's the only one besides Larson and I that actually has some goddamn personality. Boundless energy, and all that.

I smile, "Pretty good. We finally finished our plans to take over the world." I say ironically.

Mia just rolls her eyes, "I'm almost inclined to believe you. Adam does have the air of the Evil Mastermind around him, you know?"

I laugh, "Only too well. Did I ever tell you about the nick-name he made up for our friendship?"

Mia looks at me quizzically, with her head slightly cocked to the side, "No. Why'd he do something I that?"

I shrug, "I dunno. Maybe he wanted to classify how two guys so different and yet so similar became such good bros."

That's the honest-to-God truth. Where Larson is serious, kinda lanky and grows hair like a motherfucker, I'm a hell of a lot more laid back, definitely better muscled and I barely grow any facial hair while keeping my normal hair buzzed. We even have a pretty big difference in observations too, with Larson thinking me as the Comically Serious, and me seeing him as...well, the Mercutio to my Romeo. Yet, we have the same tastes in video games, books, all the good and important stuff. Except women. I'm not an ass-man; I like my girls tall, lean and stacked. Larson goes more for the smaller, dark-haired girls with the high voices and...

...Mia's looking at me funny.

I raise an amused eyebrow, "Like what you see?" She only grins in response.

"Were you daydreaming? Or _distracted~~?" _She says, turning her head to give me a coy glance over her shoulder.

"Nope, but I sure am now. Say, did you end up getting anything out of Soren?"

She pouts at me as she turns around again, "Spoilsport. And no, I didn't. Unfortunately."

I smirk, "So Larson's the only one who gets to see her softer side? I'm a little hurt, though not terribly surprised. _Back home, girls like those _were usually pretty brutal. Always kept the goal at the forefront and was all aloof and shit." I try and put emphasis into my voice, knowing that Larson is the only one who really instinctively grasps our speech.

Mia's a smart girl though, and grasps my meaning, "Really? I wonder what makes her so different around Adam..."

I turn and look at her with the best 'Really?' face I can muster, and only get a satisfied grin in return. Fucking troll Mia. It's great, but ERGH.

She giggles, "I'm just kidding, obviously~! But do I ever get to hear what Adam said that made her melt like butter? Was it really sappy? It was, wasn't it?" Oh look, some more of that energy.

I sustain my smirk, "Knowing Larson? Probably. He probably said something like, 'Ohh, I don't care about your history' or 'I swear I'll beat up and/or kill anyone that tries to hurt you'."

Mia laughs again, "But you gotta admit, that's kinda romantic."

I shrug, "I guess."

Mia smirks and rolls her eyes at me, "And I'm sure you're well versed in that kind of thing, right~?"

I roll my eyes again, smirk matching my partner's, "Nope, never heard of it. Does it hurt?"

Mia breaks into a full grin, her face lighting up in a most attractive way, "Only the first time~!"

I stand there for a moment, wondering why she seems so pleased with her- Oh, it's a double entendre. Well played, Mia.

I give her another 'Really?' look as she just breaks out into giggles. Eventually she settles down, "So, Soren's normally really, well, bitchy?"

"Don't forget male."

Mia's face scrunches up, "Right. That too."

–

I am Cain... I think.

It's hard...to think. It...takes a bit. I remember...pain. My death. _Bitch _cuts me...then Master does...

can't-

Sometimes...I talk. Thinking is...hard. Talking is...broken. Fluid, but...broken. I... remember that.

Remembering...is hard. Sometimes it...gets dark. Then light. Don't...know how many times. Seven? Four? One? I...don't know.

Sometimes...Master talks. Not to me...just at me. At all. I know...because he thinks. His wants...manifest. We obey. If we don't...

can't-

We're...walking now. Have been. How long...don't know. Sometimes..Master talks with her. Does things. Then...she does them. She seems...fond of Master. Distant...but fond. I know because...he thinks so. We feel...things for him. Sad. Angry. Pity. Is it...what Master feels? Maybe.

Now...I have Axe. Another zombie...stands before me. I feel only...one thing. One command.

_**KILL**_

Suddenly, I feel myself come alive with the thought. Red haze fogs around my vision, and I am consumed with rage, and the desire to _KILL THE FUCK OUT OF EVERYTHING._

Regaining my thoughts is always harrowing, but I never have time to savor it. As my fury manifests as the Devil Axe striking down the zombie before me, I sense something...wrong.

I...hurt.

Haze doesn't...clear. But I...hurt. Thoughts...slow. What's...going on...

Fog comes...from axe. Where it touches...hurt.

...Only hear...

...one...

_**Oh dear, what terrible luck,**_

_**Looks like YOU'RE about to get fucked.**_

_**Feel sad about your fate, yes be very blue,**_

_**Because your master doesn't care about you.**_

It's...black. Master...said...


	14. Chapter 14

Path of Valor 14

**A/N: So, the general opinion I've been getting from a few long time readers is that some characters are getting derailed and things are moving too fast. The last part confuses me, because I personally feel like this story is going really slow, but you guys know best. Regarding the derailing...**

**...Well, I'll keep working on that, starting with this here flashback. Also, do remember that Mia has no reason _not _to trust us, as she's technically the newest member. That's my justification and I'm sticking to it.**

–

_Motherfucking son of a cock-dick-bitch-shit-fuckbag! _I knew this would happen eventually, I knew Daniel's concerns were totally valid, I knew the Devil Axe had a habit of killing you in very anti-climactic ways, but FUCK. ME.

For those of you not up to speed, Cain was just killed by The Devil Axe. For those of you _really _not up to speed, Cain is the only one of my soldiers I can count on not to trip over an anthill and not have to be commanded to get back up. While we're on the subject of spectacular fails of dexterity, I'm down to four Abelites by my own negligence. Although, I don't think I'm the only one at fault when a zombie falls down, says nothing, and gets hopelessly left behind. Nope, not my fault at all.

Speaking of things that are totally not my fault, I think Daein knows where we are. There was a bit of miscalculation involved with the fight at the compound some time ago, and probably during the engagement when we were picking up Mia as well.

Mainly, we left survivors.

On reflection, we really didn't have a choice in ether case. There's no way we had the strength of arms to kill every single one of them in any battle we've fought so far, mainly because morale breaks very quickly once your former friends are now trying to kill you, _and begin to outnumber you._This, in turn, leads to a lot of enemy soldiers back at camp who have time to lick their wounds and get really pissed off at you.

Why am I bringing this up? Well, earlier today, we ran into a scouting party. Two archers and three soldiers, to be specific. We were coming out of a forest pass into a more open plains area when we spotted them on the path in front of us, some ways away. Naturally, as this was broad daylight, they saw us too. Unfortunately, these soldiers were taught some survival instincts and bolted as soon as they caught a glimpse of our commander's chiseled-in-slate visage. This does not bode well for a peaceful journey.

Currently, we are all camped for lunch off to the side of the road in the plains area I was talking about earlier. After chatting with Daniel and Mia for a bit, Mist came over to us and said Greil wanted to talk to everybody. So here I am, walking over to a quickly-forming circle, about to discuss strategy for a battle that never happened in-game. Oh what a happy, happy day this has been so far.

Greil was the first to open up the festivities, standing in the center of the circle and glowering at all of us, clearly not pleased. "I trust all of you are up to speed regarding this morning's events?"

Everyone nodded.

Greil continues with his face like thunder, "Then you all realize there's a high chance of a confrontation sometime in the near future?"

As I nod, I'm looking around at the assembled party. The usual suspects are here of course, and naturally I'm waiting on half-bated breath for Soren's input, but it seems our fair Princess Crimea has decided to join us as well. This probably shouldn't surprise me as much as it does, but at this stage in character development it's hard to believe she'd stomach the rather brutally effective tactics mercenaries tend to employ. Then again, she's probably a lot stronger internally than I give her credit for.

Back in the conversation at hand, Greil nods, "Then I'm willing to take suggestions about our next course of action." He says, leaving an open invitation for anyone to interject ideas. It would be a little awkward to jump in first, so I wait for someone else to say something.

Eventually, someone does. "Can't we roll back into the forest and make an ambush?" Boyd asks, with a surprisingly serious demeanor.

Equally surprising is when Soren jumped in to answer instead of Greil, "Not exactly. It's highly likely the scouting party we encountered is going to bring the army remnants down in full force. The advantage of an ambush would be to thin out an army, yet this one is would already be many times the strength of our own even if such an action were to succeed."

Greil nods, "We'll table it. There's always a chance we could go back in and hide, if the Daeins believed we had moved forward and try to cut us off. Any others?" His gaze meets mine for a moment, compelling me to speak up.

"Are-Are there any towns or cities nearby?" I ask, a little unsure of myself. For the first time in, like, ever, given that my ego is barely contained by the whole continent.

Greil only raises a single eyebrow, perhaps confused as to where I'm going with this, "There's a town not far from here by the riverside called Trenton, why?"

I lay my idea plain, "Why not take refuge there?"

Greil shakes his head no immediately, "Absolutely not. Daein has no respect for civilians, and I'm not putting their lives in unnecessary danger. If Daein finds us, they'll slaughter the town indiscriminately till they find us."

Soren interjects again, thankfully not totally against me, "That's not necessarily true. If Daein catches us, we could very easily slip out unnoticed in the ensuing pandemonium. We could even choose to stand and fight, considering the locals are likely to take arms with us if they had the ability. Add that to our...ability to call upon more allies as the battle progresses," Soren gives me a look. I don't know whether to feel a chill or beam with pride, so I just nervously glance at the ground.

"...then we might stand a chance in a toe-to-toe engagement. Not without casualties, though." Soren admits.

Greil nods again, "Exactly, which is what we need to avoid so far away from the Gallian border. Titania, what do you think?" He asks, turning to his faithful deputy. She only looks back at him, grim-faced.

"I think that hurrying to town, getting some rest and supplies and setting off again as soon as possible is the best we can hope for. It's true those civilians are in danger if we enter Trenton, but if the Daeins come looking for us they might be inclined to sack the city anyway. At least if we're in town we have a chance to come to their defense."

Soren peers over to our green-haired escortee, her face impassive. "If the common folk see the princess riding to their defense, morale may be at such a level that they're willing to die for their country. And I'm betting since most of the Daeins already ran once they're more inclined to do it again."

I realize that Soren's reasoning pokes a few holes in why we can't go and prepare and ambush. As I am about to speak up though, Soren and I lock eyes once more. In that moment, I compare options. If we roll back and make an ambush with the intent to make the rout once more, there's no guarantee that they won't get arrogant with their strength of numbers and fight to the last man. But if they try and lay siege to a town who is _also _fighting to the death, they might find their position hopeless and run away with their tails between their legs. _Again_.

So I be a good little boy and stay silent. Soren smirks, and I can't help but feeling she knows what just happened in my mind. That's...a little creepy, but really cool and kinda hot-MOVING ON.

Greil nods, not exactly pleased with the fact we're agreeing to a plan he doesn't like. Being a seasoned military commander probably instills you with a good amount of flexibility, though. "Alright," Greil says, glancing off into the distance in the direction I assume Trenton lies and frowning, "...Everybody, how does taking refuge in Trenton sound to you all?"

Now that I think about it, everyone else is kind of a wildcard. This is the first time I actually considered there were other people besides Mia, Daniel, Soren, Ike and Greil, truth be told. Looking to those people in particular, a variety of emotions are playing (or not playing, in some cases) across their faces. Greil and Dan wore much the same expression, though they meant opposite things. Greil was worried about the people, while Daniel was worried about the actual town, it's infrastructure and it's impact on the overall economy. He was concerned less about the individual loss of life, caring more about the farther reaching implications of _just _their livelihoods getting destroyed. Which is a million times more concerned with human life than I am, if I'm being completely honest.

_**You seem to have been de-sensitized to death. Perhaps dealing with death by trade has numbed your concept of life?**_

Maybe. I do know Necromancers tend to slide down to a point were death literally has no meaning in their eyes, but I intend not to go _that _far. Just far enough to roflstomp any enemies we encounter and prevent casualties to my list of precious people.

On a more interesting note, Soren and Mia's facial expressions are opposite as well. Mia looks concerned; whether it also be about the potential loss of life or merely if she or someone else she knows might not come back, it's hard to say. Though, given how Mia has been acting so far, I'm willing to put money down on the former being true. Soren, on the other hand, has an easily readable face and equally easily readable motivation. All she wants is to get the enemy off our backs, and ether rallying the citizens of Trenton or simply laying low seems like the best courses of action. As she turns her head slightly, I see a glint in her eye that tells me she knows I think the same. Which I would hope I do, as the last time we locked eyes she practically brainwashed me.

Not in the least bit amusing, my eyes meet Ike's. He nods at me in what I assume is a late greeting, being that I don't make it a habit to hang out with him often. Even assuming that I _could, _I wouldn't. Even though Ike could conservatively be called an absolute badass and an all around great leader, he just...rubs me the wrong way. I know I have no logical reason to dislike this guy, but maybe I'm just jealous. Come to think of it, there's a pretty good chance of that.

Briefly meeting Boyd's eyes, I can see the fire of someone who wants to kick ass behind them, despite the fact he wanted to prepare what some would call a cowardly tactic initially. Rhys and Oscar were standing together, with the former wearing his discomfort plainly on his face. Shinon and Gatrie are looking haggard, even if Gatrie tries his damnedest to keep up his boisterous persona.

Eventually, The Heart decides to interject his own idea, "Is it at all possible to evacuate Trenton? If we can get the supplies and also save the people..." Rhys trails off, looking around the group. I glance at Soren, and catch her eyes with mine again. In _that _look, I could already tell how this conversation would end, whether I was here or not.

Soren looked at Rhys and frowned, not out of malice but exasperation, "Where would we take them? Assuming the town is more then a few dozen people, herding them to some form of safety would be a logistical nightmare at best."

Sensing an opportunity to be more than a bump on a log, I pose my own question, "Are there any nearby settlements that could provide adequate defenses for the people of Trenton?"

Greil shakes his head, "Not for a great many miles."

Soren relaxes, pausing to move some wayward strands of hair from her face as she goes in for the kill, "Then moving the people of Trenton would put them in even more danger. I'll reiterate: I propose we go to the town and train any willing people as a makeshift militia. Everyone else can be free to seek shelter as they see fit."

Coming from anyone else, that probably would have been really pushy. But Greil, Ike, hell the whole damn company knows that Soren is nearly a tactical mastermind, so when she says she has a plan everyone is inclined to listen. Which really helps if you want the same reputation, and are willing to piggyback off someone else's. Especially when they _steal your ideas! _

_**We would hardly call that stealing. She no doubt had a similar plan and was just supporting Yours out of convenance.**_

...Not much of a romantic, are you?

_**We get enough of that from Your thoughts. We thought We would do Our job as character foil better, at any rate.**_

Are you implying the evil version of me from Space-Mordor _might _be my character foil?

_**Yes. We see that We must take the role of the intellectual one as well, it seems.**_

Shhh, I can't understand you, I don't speak idiot. Besides, I can still say cool stuff!

"If the defense goes according to plan, we can turn the Princess into a heroine, and someone worthy of respect and reverence." I finish, crossing my arms and smirking. In the space of a few seconds I see the fruits of my efforts come in.

Soren looks at me with ever-so-slightly raised eyebrows and nods, giving me my first gesture of approval. Everyone else ether disregard my comment or look vaguely interested. Everyone but the Princess, that is. She appears to frown and make an effort to open her mouth, but I guess she couldn't find the right words and ended up saying nothing.

Regardless, as he didn't even see the Princess's dilemma, Greil moves to end the meeting, "While I might not like it, Soren brings up good points. We'll set for Trenton immediately, and should be there before sundown. Everyone gather your things, we're leaving in just a few minutes."

As the group was breaking apart, he shouts one last order, "And keep your weapons on hand, in case we run into Daein early again!" We all shout our assent and clean up the temporary camp.

* * *

You know, walking for several hours really kills your feet. A good way to distract yourself is daydreaming while you walk. I think I'll indulge in a bit of that.

_I had just tied Daniel in how many of Greil's test questions answered. He had just asked us to show undeniable proof of what we just told him (his death), so it was time for a co-op effort. As Daniel explained to him how we both knew Volke was lurking in the shadows somewhere to kill him if he ever touched Lehran's Medallion, I checked the YouTube App on my Droid for that one cutscene where Greil gets skewered._

_Eventually I ended up finding it, right about the time Daniel finished explaining what Volke would do for Ike in the upcoming years. After I had shown him the video, he slumped back into his chair, haggard._

_He looked me dead in the eye with a tired finality, "What's the name I gave my axe?"_

_I returned his gaze, "Urvan."_

_He looked at Daniel, "My protege's name was?"_

_Daniel's own gaze was unwavering, "Zelgius, of the Daein Central Army. Moonlights as The Black Knight, one of the Four Riders of Daein."_

_I chimed in helpfully, "And your killer."_

_Greil looked at me, then at Daniel, then down at his desk with a sigh I could practically feel weighing on my shoulders. Now, I'm pretty sure Greil isn't that old of a man, but at this moment he could have passed for the oldest man in the world. It was...disquieting._

_Greil looked at us both, "What do you boys want?"_

_Daniel looked at me at the same time I did him, and we both had a few things on our mind."Ideally, we want to travel with you guys and try to keep everyone we can alive."_

_Greil nodded, and began to go over the rules if we were to join his company. We were so excited then. So very excited._

* * *

Eventually, something or another snaps me out of my reverie, very rudely. I would learn later than it's rather odd for someone to walk in a perfectly straight line for two hours, looking down and not saying anything. At the same time I would also learn Daniel realized this phenomenon in me, and decided to see how long I'd keep going until I snap out of it, not letting anyone wake me from my trance.

...Why yes, Daniel did just watch me walk right off the road and into a patch of tall grass. And yes, I tripped. And yes indeed, the four idiot zombies with me followed right in step and crumpled onto the grass with confused groans, right ON FUCKING TOP OF ME.

As I scramble to tell my zombies to get the fuck off, I hear fits of laughter from people not currently getting crushed. Deep, manly tones and well as light girlish ones tells me Daniel and Mia are laughing right over me. I can't hear all that well with all this flesh scrambling and struggling above me, but I'm pretty sure a few GMs were laughing at me as well.

Being a sneaky bastard, I decide to make the best of the situation. As the Abelites on top manage to regain their footing by nothing short of a Christmas miracle, the mass of bodies on top of me gradually lifts to the point where I can see Daniel's legs. Putting operation 'Kooky Spooks' into operation, I silently command for the Abelite standing by Daniel to lock him in place while the Abelite just getting off of me to roll at Daniel. Since Daniel could no longer get away, he was sweeped to the ground when my zombie crashed full-force into him.

With one of two targets down, I get to my feet as elegantly as I could. As I had previously thought, Mia was with Daniel, and is presently trying very hard to contain a fit of giggles.

I face her and smile, "That was pretty good, huh?"

She only nods and lets loose a few very high-pitched giggles.

My grin turns feral, "Then you'll love this."

A moment too late, Mia realizes what is just about to happen. I swear, you should have seen the look on her face or the surprised shout she gave as the other Abelite that was standing next to her suddenly wrapped her in a gigantic bear hug and took her to the ground.

Of course, I could only have my fun for so long. Eventually, Greil walked over to where two of his soldiers were attempting in vain to break free of their fleshy restraints, with a third only looking along in merriment. Clearing his throat in the most threatening way I've even seen someone do that in my life, my zombies immediately sprang up to attention, helping their former captives as well.

Greil nodded, not pleased but not overly angry, "Right, shall we be going?"

The seven of us nodded in sync and fell back into line, not daring to speak another word until we reached the town.


	15. Chapter 15

Path of Valor 15

**A/N: So, I've (probably) fixed the problem of Adam being considered overpowered. Good news is, that's one big turn-off of this story dealt with. Bad news is, it'll take about two chapters to implement. So if you wanted to detail a list of every time I exhibited a God-Mode Sue, I would advise you leave anything in this chapter off the list till you read the next one.**

**Right, that was a bit stand-offish, huh? I suppose I have a bit more bad news if you take things a certain way; There's another scene with Soren this chapter. And if that wasn't enough, Daniel actually took the time to write a portion of the chapter. Don't get too excited/mad, it's just a test to see how you guys like him.**

**Beyond that, I'd like to thank GunLord for mentioning my fanfic in a couple other reviews for other Self-Inserts.**

* * *

...After we got to the town of Trenton however, it was another story entirely. It was going to be sunset soon, so we would have to look for somewhere to stay sooner rather than later. Pulling our group to a stop just outside the bustling little riverside village, Greil turns to address us.

Looking over us with a stone-carved gaze, he speaks, "So, we have no idea when- _or if _-Daein will show up. They could be days away, or only a few hours. Titania, Ike," He spares a look towards the two, "...We'll find the mayor and inform him of the situation. Soren, stay with the princess and see what we can do for lodgings." Soren nods and eyes our green-haired traveling companion.

The addressed persons nod to the commander, and the party splits to go to their destinations. That is to say, Greil and his appointed people go off in one direction down a cobblestone path towards a collection of buildings made from wood-colored material, while everybody else stood there like a dumbass when Soren didn't start walking. After those three had walked a ways away, Soren turned to face the remaining group.

She looks at all of us impassively, "You all, besides the princess obviously, are free to go. I would normally ask for some extra guarding, but we all know who's coming with me _anyway," _She shoots a pointed look at me while the assembled crowd laughs. I just stand there, smiling confidently through Soren's probably-not-mean-spirited attempt to embarrass me. This has no visual effect on her, but her words seem lighter, as if she was amused by the reaction she provoked from everyone else.

"...So I should be able to handle it. Feel free to try and make yourselves useful; Knowing the strengths of the village will help if it does indeed come under attack. Dismissed." As she nods, the rest of the group returns the gesture and ventures off to town.

I gave Daniel a look just as Mia comes over to talk, no doubt they were planning on accompanying us to our destination. However, in the look Dan and I shared, he got the message to leave us alone and snagged Mia's arm. "Say, do you know if they have a halfway decent Smith here? You have travelled a lot, and all..." Daniel was saying as he dragged Mia away.

Before he got to far though, I called out, "Hey, Dan!"

He stopped, letting Mia regain her (little) composure, "Yeah?"

"_I'm gonna puuuuuuuut on my long white roooooooooobe!" _I sing to him.

Daniel stops, thinks for a moment, then resumes dragging Mia away, "Mmk bro." he calls out, showing very poor formal language skills.

Soren only raises one eyebrow at me as I gather the Abelites in a protective formation around the Princess. "What was that, might I ask?"

I smirk and shrug, "I was letting him know where to meet up at. As you may have noticed before, we sometimes use song lyrics to communicate." I explain, as Soren continues to look confused. This time though, the Princess seems interested in the conversation.

"Those were words to a song?" Elincia asks, probably having the same question as Soren.

I nod, "Yep. Back _home,_" I put a special emphasis on 'home' to inform Soren of my true meaning, "...Daniel and I were very into music. We were choirboys and, in Daniel's case, a band geek, and on top of that we regularly listened to a variety of music. So the lyrics to songs both Dan and I know can be used as code words. And there are a lot of songs both Dan and I know."

Elincia nods and asks, "So, what did you just say to Daniel?"

I smile, "I told him to meet me by the river."

I can't help but smile wider when I only receive looks ranging from confusion to outright exasperation. Soren pauses a moment to find the right words, but can only settle on a confused and annoyed, "How?"

My smile ends up devolving to a smirk, as I begin to prepare some trickery-dickery with my zombies. "Well, it's the third verse to a gospel song Daniel and I sang in Honor Choir a few years ago. It's special because our director, who was a large black guy with braided dreadlocks that tied them into a ponytail _with his dreadlocks, _got up in the middle of the concert and sang this verse by himself. He didn't even _tell the choir_, which made it...memorable." I smile again as my commanding work is finished.

Soren senses something odd about my expression, but Elincia does not, "What was the song-Eek!"

At her provocation, the Abelites around her started clapping, thankfully in time with one another. Seeing Soren in the beginning stages of a face palm only made me want to continue, so I cleared my throat and did just that.

"_I'm gonna puuuuuuuut on my long white roooooooooobe!_

_(Down by the riverside)_

_Oh downbyyyyyyyy!_

_(Down by the riverside)_

_HALLELUAH, down byyyyyyy, OH!_

_(And studddy war no moooore)"_

I counted it as another miracle that the Abelites were able to keep on beat. The pitch was _terrible, _but I suspect the undead don't have much in the way of vocal chords. As the Abelites clapped for my incredibly beautiful, and dare I say _downright_ _charming _performance I took a very self-satisfied bow, hoping to the Nine Divines that Soren realized I was acting this cocky as a joke.

A roll of her eyes combined with her not-often-enough-seen smirk helped assuage my fears.

I surreptitiously wave the non-existent praise off, "Please, please, hold the applause till the end of the show. And as always," I take a step towards the Princess and blast one of the Abelites off their feet, "...remember to please tip your servers." That _terrible _joke actually earned a laugh from Elincia and prolonged Soren's amusement, so mission accomplished.

Smiling, I turn to address the Princess, "So, did I answer your question?" She nodded and smiled, probably relieved of all the recent unpleasantness by my various attempts at humor. Soren however, with her arms still crossed, raised two fingers to get my attention. Naturally, I attended to her question immediately.

"So you two know each other well, then? I never really thought to ask, but are you related?" Soren asks, perhaps wondering if she was liable to have her and the company get sucked into a whole family of crazy I hadn't yet mentioned. The thought of it greatly amused me.

"Nope, his last name is different from mine," I remind the girls of our names, "...and, well, he would have a tough time being genetically related to me." I laugh awkwardly, until I realize in horror what conversation I had just opened up. Normally, talking about my (former) illness was never a problem, but since I don't have it now...

Soren's face rapidly changed in time with mine, because I had just made myself look _very _suspicious. Elincia ether didn't notice or pretended not to and asked, "Really? Why's that?"

_**Hmhmhm, oh dear. Just what have You gotten Yourself into? Will you expose Our existence to the fair maiden?**_

Okay, I need a plan _fast_, full stop. Time to go into decision-mode.

What is going on? I've been put in a situation that requires me to answer a question I don't want to, on pain of critical disapproval from Soren.

Why don't I want to answer the question? It involves me making a stupid decision with an entity ether unknown by the current party or heavily cautioned against doing this kind of deal with.

Why do I need to reveal the deal, sans lying? The cure to my genetic condition was the reward of the deal, and I cannot fake having diabetes in a world where that would be a literal death sentence.

..._Fuck, _I'm not going to get out of this one. New plan;

What's going on? I need to answer a question in a way to preserve the knowledge of The Darkness to just Soren and I.

_**Tsk, That's not very entertaining of You.**_

What euphemism will Soren understand that Elincia will not? I don't have much time to think, but my best guess would revolve around my 'inner strength'.

...That should do it, but I'm probably going to get a very stern talking-to by my fellow fledgling dark mage. I suppose it's just as well; I was bound to have to have told her sometime.

Good-naturedly I laughed, throwing my head back a small distance to obfuscate my disguising of my previous visage of absolute terror, "Well, Daniel might be a tough guy, but probably doesn't have the same kind of _inner strength _that I have." My eyes flash to Soren for a second, and I'm very apprehensive to find that she is _not pleased._

Elincia starts to give another of her dainty laughs, but stopped when she noticed Soren attempting to make me explode with her eyes. Turning to me, she noticed I was both looking liked a trapped deer and suspiciously avoiding eye contact with the other female present.

One again giving credit to the notion that she isn't as oblivious as I remember, she says, "Aw, that's much too bad. You two would seem like such a happy pair of siblings." I laugh, to try and dissolve some of the tension.

With Soren still glaring at me, I decided to cut it out. Rubbing the back of my hair awkwardly, I remark, "Well, I guess we can't always get what we want." Of course the current party, zombies especially, would know that more than anyone.

Sensing a lull in conversation, I try to move things forward, "So, shall we be off?" At this, Soren only turns and stalks off, Elincia and the zombies trailing behind. I hung back; ostensibly to make sure none of the zombies had a suspicious tripping incident in town, but mostly because I was legitimately scared of Soren right now.

_**We do believe We have spent enough time in Your head to have learned a colloquial term for this situation.**_

Oh yeah? What term is that?

_**You dun goofed.**_

…

After procuring directions from the nearest informed townsfolk, we have arrived at a surprisingly large lodge-like structure. It was obviously made of a light-reddish wood, the same type most of the houses and shops are made of, but actually appeared to have several different floors. It was off-center of the town, although the town's rough cobblestone streets made it hard to pinpoint the correct directions to _anything._

It had a rough iron gate around it, which at the very least distinguished it from the cavalcade of buildings around it. Its large double-doors looked very inviting, but walking the well-maintained dirt path up to them felt like I was walking to my death. I had no idea what Soren was going to do, if anything, and every passing moment just fed my paranoia. Just as I was imagining a horrifying magical castration, Soren turned around to face me. As she looked dead into my eyes, I swear I was about to start whimpering.

"Adam," She began, her eyes betraying a slight enjoyment to my stress, "...could you help me draft the room assignments? I know you're pretty observant_, _and that'd help me a lot." She was tricking me. This is a trap. I will regret it if I agree. She won't fool me! I'll not be so easily led into such subterfuge!

"Okay." I said.

...Damn, foiled again!

Let's be serious here, I needed to tell Soren. There's no way I would get away with this, so it's best that I pop the secret now instead of when I had just said something stupid and we were starting to make up, so that the whole human-sacrifice thing ends up ruining everything. Oh wait, shit, I didn't mention that. I mean, I could totally make up an explanation that keeps Soren in the dark about my need, but that's not what good protagonists do. A smart protagonist will share everything with the love interest, so that their relationship doesn't take a surprise jump backwards.

But still, like a condemned man I walked to the doors and held them open for the ladies, "After you," I smile and nod to Soren and Elincia as they pass by. Elincia gives a proper curtsy as she enters, while Soren only nods and gives me a smug smirk I'm accustomed to feeling on my face.

Upon entering the building proper, I was mildly shocked. My expectations of the establishment weren't ones of high quality, so walking in and seeing the same clean wood walls and a deceptively large receiving area was shocking indeed. I wouldn't call it a Holiday Inn, but if the stairs in the back of the floor lead to a different floor filled entirely with rooms, we shouldn't have a problem stashing the company here. I idly wonder if Trenton is a popular tourist destination before getting tugged in the direction of what I would assume to be the front desk.

The front desk was actually off on the left-side wall, and apparently doubled as a bar judging by all the barstool-like sitting apparatuses. The man occupying said Desk/Bar looked to be more suited to the latter, as he had the resemblance of a Hells Angel that eats nothing but thumbtacks and gravel but secretly had a tiny kitten at home named Muffins or something. Despite the looks of this _very _intimidating man/man-bear hybrid, Soren calmly walks up to the man to discuss what I assume to be the lodging arrangement. I literally have no idea what is going on in the conversation, because one moment Soren was detailing the specifics of our party's volume and the next she was haggling quite vehemently on a price.

Directing an Abelite to stand by the doors on both the outside and inside of the building, I decide to chat it up with the princess. Walking up to stand by Elincia, who was standing some distance away from the bar, I opened with a friendly smile, "Miss Elincia, how do you fare? I regret not being able to talk to you as often as some of the others in the company."

Now if she were say, an Apostle of some sort, I would probably be roasted alive for not giving the proper deference to a lady of such stature. But thankfully a time like that is some ways away, and Elincia at least has the brainpower to keep her royal parentage a secret still. Because based on past experiences, people are willing to sell out their princess in a heart-beat.

Elincia smiled and nodded her head in greeting, _again. _Royals and protocol, amirite?

"I agree, 'tis a-" A warning glance from me reminded her to cut the flowery speech, "...it's a...damn shame that I can't seem to get to know my own protectors." The curse sounded foreign on her tongue, and she was obviously uncomfortable with the thought of having to use cruder speech.

As much as I would love to see a Princess swear like a drunken sailor, I think that would offend way too many people later on.

"Elincia," I said softly, "...You could probably get away with not having to swear. In fact, I'm pretty sure Ike doesn't swear at all."

Elincia let out a sigh of relief, "Many thanks, sir Adam."

I waved away her words with a smile, "No thanks necessary. To be honest, I should probably cut down on the swearing-"

WHEN SUDDENLY, THE WINDOWS BREAK AS AN ARROW FLIES THROUGH IT!

I take one look at the arrow, unaware of the chaos beginning to unfold around me, and slowly palm my face.

"Fuuuuuucccccckkkkkkkkkkk."

* * *

"SHIIIIIIIT, that's expensive," I said as we looked through the local wares. "How's a nigga supposed to get a good battle axe?"

"Well Soren's got like 3000 gold or so in the bank, so if we make it seem like this is the best thing to ever find..." Mia said as we walked through the cobble streets. "We've killed enough...plebs?" Mia laughed at picking up our special vocabulary. "...So we deserve something nice!"

I was about to agree with her when I remembered that 3000 might be all we have, and we are a rebellion not an ummmm... rich person. Besides, I am usually against frivolities of any sort, especially when I (now) have a perfectly functioning axe that only occasionally tries to murder me. Nornally, I'd be against using something that actively tries to wreak my shit, but I just know we're gonna run into that bitch of a battle and need it.

Well it wouldn't be the first time I died, anyway.

"What are you even looking at?" Mia said. Apparently I had spaced out I had been looking at a Dark tome, and despite not knowing jack shit about anything other than english, it looked very complex. "I wonder if Larson would like this..."

Mia looked at the book for a second before jumping back. I looked up confused, when I saw arrows flying from somewhere out of town. Lovely.

I frown, "I suppose we are in a bit of a sticky wicket."


End file.
